Everlasting Light
by witchinmoonlight
Summary: V3 Alternate Ending. What if Pyrrha survived the Fall of Beacon? By sheer chance, she survived her encounter with Cinder. But how does her near death experience effect her? What about Jaune, her team, and team RWBY, that has split up after the fall of Beacon? Is light truly everlasting, even if it burns low? Rated M for sexy acts and other mature themes. (NSFW- You've been warned.)
1. When Angels Fall

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys and girls! Some of you might remember the poll I had on my profile a few weeks back (which didn't get as many votes on it as I thought it would), and you guys wanted an M-rated fanfic where Pyrrha survives the Fall of Beacon. Well, today your wish is granted by the not-so wicked witch! This will be interesting and complex fanfiction to write. For one thing, I've never written an M-rated fanfic before, even though I have some in my favorites list. Also, I'm rewriting history in such a unique way in an already complex universe. This fanfic will definitely involve an alternate ending to the volume 3 finale, the aftermath, mentioning the time-skip, maybe volume 4 and possibly volume 5 and beyond. I'll just see where this goes!

-Credit for the cover image goes to Virizona from Deviantart.

-It's obvious to tell that this fanfic will be rated M for later chapters because of lemons. I might give warnings to which chapters have those said moments. If you don't like sexy actions, you best scram. You have been warned. NOW BE GONE!

Alright, now that has been said, let's get on with it.

* * *

"It's time." Professor Ozpin said to Pyrrha.

The red-haired huntress nodded. "Hold on, Pyrrha!" Jaune ran up to her.

"Jaune, what are you...?" she began to ask.

"We must go. Hurry!" He ran through the building to an elevator. They entered and went up to Ozpin's office. As the elevator stopped, they entered Ozpin's office.

"What's this about?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha did not answer. Ozpin moved a painting aside, revealing a secret elevator. He entered a passcode and the door to the secret elevator opened. He mentioned to the two teenagers. "Come along now."

Pyrrha walked towards the elevator at a quicker pace than Jaune did. Once the young blond entered the lift, Ozpin pressed a button with the initials _SUVBA._ Those initials stood for Secret Underground Vault of Beacon Academy. Pyrrha felt her heart pounding in her chest. Was she ready for this? How could she tell Jaune what she was about to go through if she wasn't sure she was ready?

Jaune softly grasped his partner's shoulder. "So what's going on?" She brushed his hand away. "Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha said nothing as they descended to the basement.

As soon the elevator arrived to the Beacon Vault, Pyrrha, Jaune and Ozpin ran down the secret corridor underneath Beacon Academy. The vast place was dimly lit by wall-mounted torches casting a pale green light.

"What is this place?" Jaune asked softly as they ran.

The red-haired warrior turned to face her partner briefly. "It's... a type of vault."

"You've been here before?" Pyrrha turned away sadly. "What would this school need to... hide?" When he laid his eyes upon the pods, he was startled. One of them contained an unconscious girl with brown hair. Unbeknownst to him, that girl was Amber, the fall maiden. Without the machinery, she would already be dead. His brain was short circuiting. "What? Who?"

Pyrrha felt guilty. "Jaune..."

"Pyrrha, get to the pod." Ozpin ordered. "Mr. Arc, if you want to help, you can stand guard here."

He followed his instruction, getting out his weapons. Pyrrha turned to Professor Ozpin. "What do we do now?"

He sighed. "We do nothing." The door to the empty pod flung again. "You Ms. Nikos, have a choice to make." Pyrrha looked at her teammate. Jaune had his sword and shield, ready to fight and defend. She wiped away a lone tear that escaped her right eye and stepped into the pod. A rumbling sound was heard. Ozpin didn't mention it, but he somehow knew that something was following him. He knew they were running out of time. "Are you ready?" Pyrrha slightly nodded. Ozpin looked at her. "I need to hear you say it."

Despite her nervousness, she answered calmly and firmly. "Yes."

"Thank you, Ms. Nikos."

Amber's pod was tilted upwards as Ozpin punched in some blue boxes on the control grid. Amber, who was being slowly awakened, glowed with orange energy that traveled through the big electrical cables from her pod to Pyrrha's pod. As the aura was being transferred, Pyrrha started to glow too, but she was in immense agony. Her nerves felt like they were on fire, her muscles weakening, barely able to think about anything expect the agony coursing through her veins and her entire body.

Jaune was horrified as Pyrrha in agony. "Pyrrha!"

"I'm... so sorry..." Ozpin stated somberly.

A sound of glass breaking and a feminine gasp was heard. Amber had been shot in the chest with an arrow. The men turned to see a raven haired woman in a red dress with a bow. That woman was Cinder. What little aura Pyrrha had in her body disappeared and went right back to Amber. The remaining power drained from Amber's body and went directly to Cinder. She glowed with orange magic, fire spinning around her. Her power of the Fall Maiden was now complete. Pyrrha pounded on the glass with her fists, trying to get out of her pod. Jaune charged towards her.

"Stay back!" Ozpin warned, but it was too late.

Jaune ran towards her as she finished absorbing the fall maiden's powers. Cinder's eyes glowed with an orange and yellow aura around them and he was knocked down by her advanced fire powers.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha screamed.

She broke out of her pod by busting the glass and metal door down with her Semblance and threw it towards Cinder, only to have her smack it aside. She summoned her weapons to her. With her shield and spear in hand, she was about to fight Cinder, only for an arm to block her way.

"Take Jaune and get out of here. Find Glynda, Ironwood, Qrow. Bring them here right away!" Ozpin commanded. "The tower can not fall!"

"But.. I can help." she weakly protested.

"You'll only get in the way."

She looked at her headmaster sadly. Without further argument, she helped Jaune up and ran off, leaving Ozpin to face Cinder alone. She looked at the two, but much to the surprise of both hunters, she didn't attack them as they fled.

* * *

The two rushed outside the school.

Jaune panted. "Okay, I think I have Glynda's number." He started to check his scroll. "Oh where is it?" Pyrrha looked back at the tower, her eyes becoming filled with sorrow as she looked back at the tower. He turned to his red-haired teammate. "Pyrrha, what was all of that?"

She looked at him, disheartened. "I..." she began.

The duo heard a rushing sound. Albeit they couldn't see her, Jaune and Pyrrha could tell that Cinder was using her newfound powers to propel herself towards the top of the tower. That also meant...

"But... Ozpin..." Jaune muttered sadly.

"There's no time. Go. Get to Vale and call for help."

"Huh? What are you going to do?" She looked up at the tower. She knew it could cost her life, but she couldn't just stand there and do nothing. Jaune believed he was about to lose the girl he loved. "No, Pyrrha, you can't. You saw how powerful she is." She blinked, trying to hold back tears. "Pyrrha, I won't let..."

Without another word, she cupped her hands around his face and kissed him. He closed his eyes, wrapped his arms around her waist and enjoyed the taste of her lips. Her breath smelled like lemons, and his like limes. Pyrrha broke away ruefully, steeling herself for what she was about to do.

"I'm sorry."

She shoved him into the nearby locker pod, shut it with her polarity power, and started dialing some coordinates.

"No, wait, stop! Pyrrha, please don't do this!"

She thought of saying something, but she didn't know what to say, so she said nothing. The locker pad launched into the sky, leaving Pyrrha to confront Cinder without any assistance. She watched the locker soar into the distance, then braced herself for what she believed was her last battle. She ran over to the elevator, pried the doors open with her polarity and saw the elevator had been taken out. There was a hole in the elevator floor and one on the ceiling. She looked at the ceiling and concentrated her power on moving the elevator upward. The ground shook. Sparks flew. Her mind was in a thousand places at once, but she willed herself to focus on her power. She made the elevator sky-rocket all the way to the top.

Meanwhile, Jaune had landed in a desolated area that had been destroyed during all of the chaos around him. However, he hardly even noticed the damage.

 _Pyrrha needs help immediately or she'll die. Who can help her?_

He randomly chose a contact that popped up in his list. Weiss. She promptly answered by asking him, "Where are you?"

"Weiss! Please, you have to stop her!"

"What?"

"Pyrrha! She's going after that woman... at the top of the tower! She doesn't stand a chance!"

"Jaune, what are you talking about? Where are you?"

"Don't worry about me, please! You have to save Pyrrha."

"We will. Are you okay?" Not thinking rationally, he screamed and threw his scroll to the ground, causing it to shatter. "Please..."

* * *

Pyrrha was in the elevator, her thoughts swarming through her mind as fast, if not faster than the elevator she was traveling up.

 _I'm sorry Jaune. I should have told you this earlier.  
_

Then she realized... She never told him the truth about what was happening. She just dragged him along without giving him a real explanation. He didn't know that Amber was previously the fall maiden on the verge of death, what the maidens were, that Cinder was the new fall maiden or that she was supposed to become the fall maiden. Guilt ate at her heart.

"I'm sorry..."

The elevator dinged as it reached the top floor. Pyrrha threw her spear towards Cinder, which was swiftly dodged and she guarded herself against Pyrrha's shield attack. She summoned her tools back to her, glaring at Cinder while the new fall maiden hovered in the air and fired fire blast after fire blast at the young huntress. Pyrrha dodged the first two, then shielded herself against the stream. She attempted to stab Cinder with her weapon, but she caught in her hand and threw the huntress into the wall. Cinder flew towards her, fire in her hands. Pyrrha propped up her feet against the wall to dodge and threw Cinder back, only for her to backflip twice and not suffer a scratch. She jabbed with her spear, Cinder shielded herself, and the fight raged on.

Pyrrha threw her weapons at Cinder, only for her to effortlessly knock them down. She then tackled the fall maiden and tried to pin her down into a powerless position. She held her arm around her neck, spear surrounding her chest as Cinder tightly grasped it in both of her hands. It seemed as though the young huntress had the upper hand, but Cinder's irises started to glow orange, summoning the Grim Dragon to her. The dragon shrieked. Cinder then broke the spear and forcefully elbowed her foe away from her. As the dragon shrieked, the glass windows broke. This caused the upper part of the tower to crumble, making the arena they were in exposed to the cool night sky. Pyrrha was about to reach for her shield, but she noticed Cinder hovering above her, wanting to destroy her. She saw a huge piece of metal and threw it towards Cinder, only to have Cinder knock it aside. Pyrrha manually grabbed her shield and barrel-rolled several times to evade the fall maiden's attacks.

The red-haired warrior then threw her shield at Cinder, only for her knock it out the air like it was a Frisbee with her left hand. Then she noticed the huntress manipulating the metal gears with her black aura around her hands. Pyrrha used her shield to knock her down and attempted to crush her with the gears. Unfortunately, Cinder blasted the gears away from her with fire and one of the flying gears knocked Pyrrha into part of a crumbled wall.

Pyrrha threw her shield at Cinder as Cinder fired an arrow at her. The arrow passed right through her shield and pinned Pyrrha down by her boots. She was stuck there, on her knees.

"It's unfortunate that you were promised a power that was never truly yours." the woman spoke. She lifted the girl's chin up with her fingers. "But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you could never have imagined."

Trying to figure a way out of the situation, Pyrrha asked. "Do you believe in destiny?"

Cinder glared at her and answered, "Yes."

The raven-haired woman had formed her bow and arrow set, drew back the string and was ready to aim. Ruby had just arrived at the top of the tower, with Cinder about to fire an arrow at Pyrrha. But then suddenly, a deafening cry was heard. A huge Grim bird came out of nowhere!

Cinder mistakenly hit the bird's claw instead of the huntress. It was actually a Griffon. Cinder used her fire powers to propel herself upward to tame the creature. Ruby removed the arrow pinning Pyrrha's boot to the ground.

"Pyrrha, we have to get out of here!" Ruby cried out as Cinder lead the Griffon away.

"But if we leave, who will stop her?" Pyrrha asked, referencing to the evil fall maiden.

Cinder landed back on the ground and Ruby gasped.

"Wait a second. You were the one I saw that night! The masked woman who infiltrated The Cross Continental Transmit System in Beacon! Cinder, how could you?!"

She laughed. "You may be right, little girl. But what could you possibly do to stop me?" She fired an arrow at the young girl, but someone else got in the way by jumping into the line of trajectory.

"No!"

Pyrrha had been shot right in the gut. She fell to ground, collapsing, lying in a pool of blood. Ruby gasped in horror. Cinder laughed. Tears formed and came crashing down the young warrior's face. She clinched her fist, feeling a medley of negative emotions she never felt was possible to be felt. Suddenly Ruby's eyes shined with blinding white light, forming white angel wings as her power was unleashed.

"PYRRHA!"

The Grimm Dragon roared.

"What?!" Cinder asked.

Everything soon faded, engulfed in white light. As white light engulfed the surrounding area, Ruby stood there, looking at the light, feeling sorrowful and empty. As the light faded, Ruby collapsed to the ground. Weiss, who heard the explosion and Ruby's scream from down below, created a series of glyphs in a vertical column and run up the tower as fast as she could, only to find a severely injured Pyrrha and an unconscious Ruby.

"Ruby! Pyrrha!"

She ran over to Pyrrha as Qrow transformed from his bird form and landed on top of the roof. She quickly summoned a glyph to stasis Pyrrha's injury and prevent further bleeding. The ice queen did not notice that the usually drunken man had transformed from his bird form to human form and did not bother to question how he got up there in the first place, but she was grateful that he was here.

"Qrow, call for an ambulance! Pyrrha's been hurt!" she commanded.

He whipped out his scroll and dialed an emergency number for help.

"Hello, we got an unconscious girl who's bleeding from her stomach." Weiss focused on using her semblance to continue preventing further injury. "I don't know how it happened." Silence reigned as Weiss concentrated on saving Pyrrha. "Fortunately, she's in stasis, but I don't know how long the huntress can continue to use it."

 _Every muscle in my body feels strained, but I have to continue! I promised to save her!_

"And there's one unconscious girl without any visible injury." More silence. "Alright, thank you." He hung up.

Weiss looked at Qrow somberly. "What... do we do now?"

"Hold that stasis glyph on your friend until help arrives." he answered. "Aside from praying, that's all we can do at the moment."

"What about Ruby?" Weiss asked hesitantly. "Will she be okay?"

"She's only unconscious. But for how long it's hard to tell..."

Weiss felt herself shattering inside even further. She had to stay strong, but how could she? Ruby was unconscious, Yang had her arm ripped off, and Blake was swallowed up in her own shadow. Nora and Ren were injured as well, and Jaune was still missing. Who knows what became of him?

She tried to dismiss these thoughts. She had to focus! She was not going to let Pyrrha die.

 _I promised Jaune I would save Pyrrha! I mustn't fail! I won't fail!  
_

Eventually, a helicopter arrived and got Ruby and Pyrrha onto it. As soon as they arrived, Weiss placed her hands on the floor to prevent herself from fainting. Once they got everyone on, Weiss continued using her power as the medics tended to Pyrrha's wounds.

"You don't have to continue, Weiss. The medics have arrived." Qrow pointed out.

Weiss felt tears about to spill from her eyes. "I don't care!" The tears cascaded down her face. She softly sobbed. "I'm going to save her."

 _Even if it kills me..._


	2. There'll Be No Love

Author's Notes:

-It seems that my inner muse has become more active then usual. This chapter is out quicker than I expected.

Now let's get on with the show!

* * *

"Cinder!" a voice called out. "Cinder!"

"Keep it down, Emerald!" a man with grey hair scolded. "Are you trying to attract the police?!"

"I can't help it, Mercury! I'm nervous, I'm scared!" she retorted.

Mercury and Emerald, Cinder's henchmen, were looking for her after her battle. They knew she was somewhere in or around Beacon Academy, but they weren't sure where. They also had no idea if she succeeded in taking the fall maiden's powers.

"Do you think she succeeded in her objective?" the girl asked.

"She probably went to the top of the tower. That's where she suspected the secret elevator to the basement where Amber was located was." Emerald saw something out of the corner of her eye and ran towards a tree. "Or maybe not."

She gasped upon reaching Cinder, lying unconscious under the tree. She knelt down to examine her, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Cinder... No..."

Mercury's jaw dropped. Emerald brushed away Cinder's bangs, revealing that she had a massive scar on the left side of her face and a lack of skin, exposing her skeleton. Her left eye was missing, leaving an empty socket. Her long raven hair had mostly fallen out, leaving it very short and she had lost her entire left arm. Her left ear was also greatly damaged and the upper part of it was gone.

As Emerald evaluated the damage, she burst into tears. "What do we do now?"

"We can't drag her to the infirmary, lest we risk being caught and arrested. We have no choice but to return to... her domain."

"But what if someone should see us here?"

"I know you're not going to like this, but... we have to brave the forest to make it to her realm."

Hoping to avoid being attacked by any Grimm in the area, Emerald and Mercury traveled into the forest. The girl carried Cinder by her legs while the boy carried her by her back. They ran through the forest for a few minutes before stopping in an area densely packed with trees.

Mercury looked to be sure there were no witnesses. "This should be far enough. Get out the compass."

Emerald pulled out of her pocket at first glance looked like a compass made of a black metal. But it was not an ordinary compass. Above the letters indicating the four cardinal directions were these small red gems. Emerald took her index finger and starting at the south point, dragged her finger on the compass in a counter-clockwise motion, and pressed her thumb against the glass where the S was. The compass glowed black and formed a portal in front of her.

The thief put the gadget away. "We must hurry." She picked up Cinder's legs. "There is no time to lose."

Carrying their unconscious boss, Mercury and Emerald quickly went through the portal and a few seconds later, it vanished.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jaune was still in the city, having recently slayed a bunch of Grimm monsters. He had his sword in his right hand and his shield had been shattered into pieces during the fight. He was standing there, panting.

 _That was... too close._ the young man thought to himself.

Unlike many of his follow students at Beacon who fought, he was not horribly injured, although he was exhausted.

 _Maybe I can make it back to the tower... But would Pyrrha even be there?_

"Jaune! What are you doing here?" a familiar voice asked.

He heaved for breath as he looked at Professor Oobleck. "I... I... It's a long story."

"Come on, we better get you to safehouse in Vale."

He sheathed his sword and followed Professor Oobleck to the outskirts of Beacon Academy. They got onto one of the planes set to take the students to a safehouse in Vale city. He looked around and saw that Pyrrha was not there. Crestfallen, he sat down next to this teammates, Ren and Nora, who were injured and exhausted from battle. They looked at the ground, staring sadly down at the students around them. Some were unconscious, some were trying to rest, others had their eyes open. Yang laid on the ground under a bench. Jaune noticed that part of her arm was missing.

 _What happened to her?_ he thought to himself.

"Where's Pyrrha?" he asked.

Ren and Nora nodded sadly.

"Jaune..." Nora began.

The plane took off without any warning. Ren and Nora explained what happened while he and Pyrrha were gone, and he told them what little he knew.

"How could you guys not find her?" Jaune asked.

"Ruby and Weiss aren't here either." Ren pointed out.

"I hate to say it, but..." She paused, closing her eyes, turning away. "Maybe they never returned because they were killed..."

Ren looked at the window. "She could be anywhere by now."

Jaune looked at a picture of Pyrrha on his scroll, before looking at team RWBY, smiling like nothing could go wrong. _Pyrrha_ , _Ruby, Weiss... Wherever you are, I hope you're okay... Pyrrha... I love you. Don't die on me now...  
_

* * *

Meanwhile, in Vale city, many of the hospitals were overrun with injured patients due to the Grimm attacks and try as they might, they couldn't save everyone. Qrow hoped that they could save Pyrrha.

"Hurry, she's been injured!" Weiss said.

The workers rolled Pyrrha's stretcher down the hall. As Weiss reached the operating center, she was denied entry.

"You are not allowed to go any further." a paramedic said.

She sighed sadly and returned to the lobby where Qrow and an unconscious Ruby were.

"What do we do now?" Weiss asked.

"I have to get Ruby and Yang home so that they can recover." Qrow said, carrying her away. "I better find Yang and contact their dad to get them back to Patch so they can recover. If you can get a messenger to send a message, tell me what happened to Pyrrha."

Qrow then left with Ruby over his shoulder. Weiss sighed and looked at the ground, crestfallen.

 _Please... Pyrrha... tell me that I didn't fail._

Weiss started silently sobbing.

* * *

Meanwhile, the plane landed at the safehouse. The students were all gathered in the empty warehouse. Many were scared, many were sad, some were discussing what they thought about doing. Commotion sounded throughout the whole venue.

"Alright, alright, quiet down!" Professor Port shouted into a megaphone. Many students covered their ears. "Alright, we have no idea how long we'll be forced to stay here. With the CCT down, we have no way to notify your parents of the situation. However, you can still write them a letter, and hopefully a messenger will be able to deliver it despite the risk of a Grimm attack. I hear they're in high demand right now and offer a big pay!"

"Don't encourage them!" Glynda scolded.

He passed the megaphone off to Professor Oobleck. "Alright, normally, we would get right to distrubution of supplies. However, since this is the Vytal Festival and we have more teams here than usual, there is nowhere near enough room or supplies for all of you to stay overnight. Therefore, we'll have to rent out temporary apartments for some teams. Now we know this is a hard decision to make, so we will give the team leaders ten minutes to discuss with their team members what they would like to do."

Nora and Ren looked at Jaune, who was still distraught from the events that had recently occurred.

"What do we do know?" Nora asked.

"I.. I'm thinking."

 _I don't want to stay here where everyone can see me vulnerable, but yet, I wonder if Pyrrha might show up here._

He remembered what his teammates said on the plane.

 _"Maybe they never returned because they were killed..."_

 _"She could be anywhere by now."  
_

He asked himself, _Why can't I be like Blake, who's so good at hiding her emotions?_

The young man was so lost in his thoughts that he had to make a quick decision.

"Alright, your ten minutes are up!" Professor Port declared. He walked to the center of the mob of students. "Now I will call out your team name and the leader will come up and confirm the team's decision. Team CFVY."

Coco Adel walked up closer. "We have decided 3-1 that we're getting an apartment."

Yatsuhashi quietly groaned.

"Alright then. Team CRDL."

Cardin Winchester approached Peter Port and answered, "We have come to the unanimous decision of taking an apartment instead of staying here."

"Team RWBY." He looked at Yang's arm and gasped. "What happened to her arm?!"

"Long story." Blake answered, trying not to sob.

"Is anyone here a medic?!" he asked.

"I am." a random female student answered.

She ran up to Yang and tended to her wound, trying to stop the bleeding and numb the pain. Then he noticed the absence of two of RWBY's team members. "And where are Ruby and Weiss?"

Blake sobbed. "We..." Sniff. "don't know." She blinked as tears continued falling down her face. "They left to try and find Pyrrha... but neither of them returned. And she's still missing." Sniff. "And to answer your question." She wiped away her tears with her right hand. "We'll stay here." Sniff. "For now."

He looked to the ground, somber. "Very well then. Team JNPR. What is your decision?"

"We've decided to move into an apartment." Jaune answered.

"We have?" Ren asked.

"Yes. If Pyrrha comes here, tell her where to find us."

"Will do. Moving on... Team SSSN."

As he went down the list of teams and recorded their decisions, Jaune kept saying many prayers (most of them in his head), that Pyrrha would be okay. Some people, including Sun, tried to comfort and reassure Blake that everything would be okay, but she yelled at them. She even slapped Sun... twice. Once in the arm, and once in the face.

"Ow!" he cried out.

"Keep it down, will ya?! Team ABRN."

Eventually, after an hour or so of doing this, he was done taking responses.

"Alright, those of you that are moving into apartments, go with Professor Oobleck to discuss living arrangements."

"That's Doctor Oobleck!"

"Put a sock in it, Bartholomew!" he commanded. "The rest of you, hang tight and we'll discuss what happens from here on out."

Glydna face-palmed. He sighed and walked outside. Team CRDL, team CFVY, and the remaining members of team JNPR, among others, went outside to discuss apartment arrangements with Professor Oobleck.

"Alright, now that we have cleared out a significant number of students, we have enough sleeping bags and pillows for everyone. When I call your team's name, have the leader come up and get your supplies." Professor Port instructed. "Team SSSN."

Sun gathered the sleeping bags and pillows for himself and his teammates.

"Team BRNZ."

Brawnz Ni got his supplies and went back to his teammates.

"Team NDGO."

Nebula Violette gathered the pillows and sleeping bags and gave them to her team.

"Team RWBY."

Blake took the stuff given to her. Yang got into her sleeping bag immediately. Blake gently lifted up her head and placed a pillow underneath it. The cat faunus was not tired at all. Not physically, mentally or emotionally. Not even her eyeballs were fatigued. Eventually, they got sleeping bags and pillows distributed to everyone there.

"Now then, since we are technically still responsible for you, all of you must stay here unless noted otherwise or you get permission to leave the vicinity. Professor Oobleck will be keeping an eye on you all night, so don't even think about trying to sneak out!"

He continued drinking his stimulating drink as Professor Port spoke. He looked at his cup, and realized there wasn't a drop of liquid left.

"Aw man, I've run out..." he grumbled.

His grumbling couldn't be heard by the students.

"Alright, it's been a long day, so I'm officially declaring lights out." Professor Port declared. "Try to get some sleep if you can. Good night."

And with that, the lights were shut off and everyone (save for the watch-guard) went to bed (or at least tried to). Well, all except one that is. Blake remained wide awake. She looked at Yang ruefully.

 _Yang, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault... I shouldn't have lived... You shouldn't have been so severely injured by him..._

* * *

Weiss sat at the hospital, waiting to be allowed into Pyrrha's room.

 _What's taking them so long? Or does it just feel like it's been an eternity because Pyrrha is clinging onto life?_

Her thoughts were disrupted when her father, Jacques Schnee, entered the room with one of the personal pilots from his house.

"There you are, Weiss. I've been looking everywhere for you."

She blinked twice. "Father? What are you doing here? How did you get here so quickly?" she asked.

"Originally, I was on my way to a coastal city south of here for a business meeting, but when I heard about the events of the Vytal Festival Tournament and the Atlas' robots being hijacked and attacking innocent civilians, I cancelled the meeting and came here immediately."

Weiss looked at her father, using her confusion to mask her slight anger and irritation. "But for what reason?"

"I'm taking you home."

She raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"We will be leaving tomorrow morning after staying overnight at the nearest hotel. It's not safe for you here Weiss. And with Beacon Academy in tatters, there's no point in staying here."

She argued by asking, "B... But they can fix it, can't they?"

"Considering that Grimm are surrounding the entire school because of the petrified Grimm on top of the tower, I am highly skeptical that they can resolve the situation in a swift and timely manner."

Weiss's eyes widened. "You saw Grimm surrounding the school?"

"Lots of them."

"What about my friends?"

"They've abandoned you, haven't they? I don't see any of your described teammates here with you."

"They never abandoned me." she stated. "Me and Ruby went out to find Pyrrha, one of our friends, but... she was injured. I'm waiting for the paramedics to let me see her."

"How long have you been waiting?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe an hour or two?"

"The fact that they haven't given you an update on her status means they think you don't care about her, or more likely, she's dead."

"But that can't be..." Weiss looked at her hands. "I nearly exhausted my aura trying to save her."

Her father softly grasped her arm. "Come along, we need to make hotel arrangements for the night. Then, tomorrow at dawn, we leave for Atlas."

"But what about Pyrrha?"

He scoffed. "She is of no concern to us."

Weiss had always disliked her father and disapproved of many of his actions, but that one sentence was slowly starting to make her hate him. Reluctantly, she submitted to his will and left the hospital.

* * *

Eventually, at around 11:59pm that evening, Jaune, Ren and Nora were in their new apartment with their weapons and remaining possessions. Their apartment consisted of three queen sized beds, two of them being in the same room, a full sized bathroom in the lower left corner, a kitchenette, a wooden dining table with four chairs and a small living room with a couch and television.

"Oh... man... It's been a long day." Nora said.

She plopped back-first onto the nearest bed. "At least we have a roof over our heads." Ren said, trying to be optimistic. Nora got herself comfortable under the covers of the bed. "Jaune?" He looked away from Ren, despondent. Nora sat up, looking at the leader as Ren spoke to him. "Look, I know you're worried, but, if you stay up all night worrying, it won't do us any good."

He sighed and admitted, "You're right. I should get to sleep. Goodnight guys."

The leader of the team set his stuff down in the other room. He was fortunate to be alone so no one could see him like this. Unfortunately, for Jaune, his mind nor his heart would let him rest. For in his dreams, he saw what he feared reality could be.

Pyrrha was pinned down by her boots with an arrow. She was already defeated, but the new maiden wasn't done with her yet. Cinder approached Pyrrha.

"It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours." She lifted Pyrrha's chin with her fingers. "But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you could never have imagined."

"Do you believe in destiny?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yes."

She formed her bow and arrow as Ruby ran up the side of the tower on Weiss's glyphs. When she arrived at the top of the tower, Cinder shot an arrow right into Pyrrha's chest. She gasped for air, trying to breathe, but she couldn't. Cinder grasped onto Pyrrha's circlet with her left hand and turned her corpse into ashes. The ashes were blown away by the wind before her circlet fell to the ground.

As these events unfurled, he wanted to scream, _No! This can't be happening!_

But he had no voice. He couldn't speak.

 _Pyrrha! PYRRHA!_

Jaune woke up, gasping for air. He looked at the time on the alarm clock in the room. 3:20am. He groaned internally.

 _I can't take this anymore!_

He grabbed his sword and armor, went to the kitchen and opened a drawer. He took out a piece of paper, a pen and started writing something.

 _I'm going to find her, even if I have to tear the whole city apart!_


	3. Time to Say Goodbye

I _can't stay here anymore._

These were the words that ran through Blake's mind as she sat there, awake at night in a dark, quiet, crowded warehouse. She looked at her remaining teammate. Yang was fast asleep, hiding her injury by snuggling herself in her sleeping bag. Ruby and Weiss were still missing. She didn't want to assume the worst, but since they had yet to return...

 _I'm sorry, but I can't stay here. Not like this...  
_

First, she put her pillow into her sleeping bag, folded up the sleeping bag with the pillow in it, and shoved it into a backpack she found earlier. Next, she slowly and quietly zipped it up. She gingerly climbed up the stairs leading to the second floor, where some of the teams were sleeping. She took great care with every step she made. One wrong move and everyone would wake up. Then she looked back at Professor Oobleck, who by this point, had run out of caffeine and had fallen asleep on the ground. She slowly creaked open the panel, creating a window between the warehouse and the outside world.

The catwoman looked down at Yang, who was still asleep, then at where Sun's team was, only to find that Sun was not there. She looked around, but she didn't see him, so she shrugged it off.

 _Goodbye Beacon._

Without further hesitation, Blake leaped out the window and jumped onto the rooftop. Then she ran across the rooftops, trying to get away from the situation. As she jumped from one rooftop to another, she looked at the clouded sky, hiding the stars, shrouding her in darkness. She stopped towards the edge of the tenth rooftop she jumped onto. She put her clinched fist to her heart and made a grueling effort to hold back tears.

 _This is my fault. If I stay, Adam Taurus and the White Fang will come after my friends, and someone else I care for will be hurt. I have to confront the mistakes of my past and make things right... even if it means..._

"Blake?" a familiar face asked.

The cat turned around to see Sun, the leader of team SSSN. He stood on the opposite end of the rooftop, bathed in the light of the moon, looking at his crush. Her hair was tangled up, her eyes swollen and red from the tears shed earlier. But he didn't care. It only made him more concerned for her.

"Sun? What are you doing here?!" she asked, clearly irritated with him.

"I saw you sneaking out of the safe house. Why are you doing this?"

"I can't stay here. Yang's been injured and it's all my fault!" She turned away sadly, folding her arms. "If I was never involved in the White Fang, this would never have happened!"

"Blake, it's not your fault!" Sun protested. "The guy who did this, whoever he is, he's the one responsible!"

"But Yang wasn't his target. It was me." Sun gasped. "And I must stop him. Alone."

"Alone? Blake, are you crazy?! You'll be killed! I'm coming with you!"

"No, Sun. I can't ask you to do that."

"Look, Blake." He felt his heart pounding in his chest. "There's something I've wanted to tell you for a long time." He breathed in deeply. "I love you." Blake quietly gasped. "Please, don't do this." He extended his hand. "Everything will be alright. Trust me."

Blake turned away. More tears spilled from her eyes. His words were so comforting, so soothing. Part of her wanted to throw herself into his arms, for him to steal away her pain. As if she knew he was right... but the problem was staying here with him wouldn't fix anything. She focused her energy. "Sun..."

"Yes, Blake?"

"I'm sorry."

He heard fast footsteps and saw Blake standing there, closer to him, crying. He touched Blake's face in attempt to wipe away her tears only to realize it was an illusion. He gasped as the shadow vanished. As the moonlight faded, the real Blake was on the ground, running further into the night. More tears fell from her eyes and hit the ground as she ran.

 _Goodbye, my love..._

* * *

A black portal appeared in a dark, foreboding yet comforting castle. This castle belonged to their mistress, or their mistress's mistress. The two criminals panted as they exited the portal.

Mercury looked around. He saw black leather couches in a room with purple walls. "Where did we end up in the palace this time?"

"Looks like... The living room." Emerald answered.

"Ah, Mercury, Emerald. I see you have returned." a mysterious voice spoke.

They turned around as a woman floated into the room.

"Mistress Salem." Mercury said. "I hate to the be the bearer of bad news, but.."

"Cinder is obviously injured." Salem finished. "Set her down. I must examine her."

The two set down Cinder on the couch. Salem carefully inspected her. She softly grasped her wrist and examined the damage done. As she did this, Mercury and Emerald stood there, watching in a foreboding manner. She looked discontented with what had happened to her best servant, yet she never once looked horrified in shock and she never gasped. After looking at her for a few minutes, she finally broke the silence.

"This is most disturbing." she said, slowly turning to face Mercury and Emerald. "Where did you find her?"

Emerald looked down sadly with her hands down in front of her. "We found her underneath a tree nearby the tower. Neither of us know what happened."

Salem grimaced. "I know what happened. This kind of damage I have seen before. It was been done by the power of a silver-eyed warrior."

"Silver-eyed warriors?" Mercury asked. "But... that's just a legend. A mere fairy tale."

She chuckled. "You also thought the story of the maidens was just a fairy tale, and yet you have found the fall maiden twice over."

It took them a moment to process the information. Emerald blinked twice. "Twice? Does that mean..."

"Yes, Cinder now possesses the entirety of the fall maiden's powers." She briefly smiled. "I can feel the power flowing through her veins." Her expression turned grim. "However, that power brings with it a crippling weakness. What is more unfortunate is that Cinder will be stuck in a coma."

Emerald hesitantly asked, "For how long?"

"Anywhere from three months to six months. Alas, healing has never been my strength."

"So... what do we do now, mistress?" Mercury asked.

"That's what I must figure out. Tyrian is searching for the spring maiden, Watts is looking for winter, and Hazel has yet to report back on whether or not he has found the true location of the summer maiden. Also, those three agents have yet to receive the teleportation compasses to my realm that I am still creating for their future use. What's worse is that we have yet to find Beacon's relic. I am having my Grimm search the entire school, but I predict that they can not find where the gate is."

"Look on the bright side, mistress. It could be worse." Mercury added.

A Seer then appeared, showing Arthur Watts standing in a snowy mountain. The tall man stood there in a light blue coat.

"Hello there, Watts. What news do you bring?"

"Actually, there is good news, bad news and worse news."

She sighed. "Oi vey. What's the bad news?"

He breathed in, as if trying to calm himself. "Well, you see, your excellence, it's in chronological order."

"Tell me what happened."

"I had found the winter maiden and attempted to trick her into thinking that I was a good guy who wanted to help her use her special powers for the better. However, somehow, she knew I was lying. I don't know how she discovered it, but once I knew my ruse wasn't working, I attempted to take her by force. Surprisingly, instead of fighting me, she was a coward and ran away from me. Naturally, I pursued. Eventually, after chasing her to the edge of a cliff, I spoke to her saying, 'You know, it would be more logical to surrender now.' She didn't listen. She threw ice to my eyelids, sealing them shut and I heard footsteps. But they weren't the loud fast footsteps of running. I knew she was gone, so I had to get the ice off my eyelids so I could actually see. That took forever. And what's worse is have no way to tell what has become of her. I hate the fact that I have failed and displeased you, your majesty."

"That is most disconcerting. We will have to think of a new method on you pursing these maidens. Stay put until I have new orders for you."

"Will do, your excellence. I hope you may be informed of good news soon."

The Seer's vision faded away until only darkness could be seen. Once the orb showed nothing, the Seer floated away.

"What is our next order of business?" Mercury inquired.

"I would advise you two to go to your respective chambers and rest up. It has been a long day. I will call you again when your next assignment is ready."

The two criminals respectfully bowed to her before leaving.

* * *

Later on in the morning, after the sun rose, Nora, who was sound asleep, slowly woke up. She yawned and stretched her arms as she did so. Then she detected a delicious aroma in the air.

"Do I smell... pancakes?"

She walked to the kitchen, and her nostrils definitely did not deceive her. Ren was up making pancakes and other common breakfast items like bacon, sunny-side up eggs and toast.

"Indeed you do smell pancakes." He smiled as he flipped the pan with bacon before putting it onto a plate. Nora looked at three different stacks of flapjacks and began to drool. "I made an early run to nearest store and got ingredients for pancakes and more. I've made three different kinds; plain, strawberry and chocolate chip."

She smiled brightly. "Aw, you..." Nora took two of each kind of pancake and proceeded to drown them in maple syrup. She started digging into her pancakes. "Hey, how come Jaune isn't awake yet?"

Ren shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I better find him and tell him breakfast is ready."

He walked down the hall to Jaune's room, only to find a note on his door.

 _This is unusual._ Ren thought.

He examined the note as he returned to the kitchen.

"Well?" Nora inquired.

Ren sighed. "He's not here. He left this note behind."

"Well, what does it read?" Nora asked, grabbing a slice of bacon.

"It reads, _'To Nora and Ren,_

 _If you have found this note, this means that I have left to find Pyrrha. I just can't sleep at night not knowing if the love of my life is dead or alive and what has ultimately become of her. Normally, I would tell you to call me if you have any concerns, but since my scroll is broken and I have yet to get it repaired, trying to call me would be useless. If I do not return by nightfall, feel free to call the proper authorities. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.  
_

 _From Jaune.'"_

"Aw, that's so cute!" Nora squealed. "I'm surprised that he admitted his feelings for Pyrrha in his note."

"You knew?"

"P-lease. It was obvious." She drank a bit of milk before turning back to Ren. "So what do we do now?"

Ren set his plate down at the table and sat down. "Unfortunately, we have to wait. I'm sure everything will be just fine."

* * *

 _Everything is not fine._ Yang thought to herself.

It was around 9:10am. Morning came for the temporary residents at the warehouse. Many of them woke up on their own, but those that did not were woken up by a bugle horn. This included Sun, who had his sleeping routine out of whack after the events that occurred while the lights were out.

"Ahh! What?!" Once he was (mostly) awake, he realized what was happening around him. "Oh man... back to the new nightmare that is my reality."

His best bud Neptune looked at him, concerned. "Sun, what's wrong?"

Before he could answer, Professor Port exclaimed, "Rise and shine, students!" He got out a clipboard. "Now, for role call. I will be calling out team names and leaders will say whether or not everyone is accounted for. Team BRNZ."

"Everyone is present." Brawnz answered.

"Team NDGO."

"All present." Nebula yawned.

"Remains of Team RWBY."

Glydna looked and asked, "Where's Blake?"

Yang shuttered in a panic, "I.. I don't know."

Sun looked downcast. "She ran away."

"What?!" Yang asked. "Why?"

"I don't know." Sun sighed. "I saw her sneaking out in the dead of night, at around 3:20am. I tried to stop her, but I was unsuccessful. I tried to tell her everything would be alright, but she didn't listen. I thought I saw her move closer to me, away from the edge of the rooftop we stood on, but when I tried to embrace her, she vanished. I then realized that she had created a shadow clone of herself, and that the real Blake was long gone."

"That is most disconcerting." Glydna noted. "Hopefully, wherever she's run off to, she's alright."

"Anyway, moving on... Team..." Professor Port started to say.

Suddenly, a large creaking sound was heard. Qrow entered the warehouse, worrying some of the students.

"Qrow? What brings you here?" Glydna asked.

"I'm here to bring my niece, Yang Xiao Long, back home." Yang walked up to Qrow, not even looking at him. He looked at her, concerned for her. "Yang, what's the matter?"

"I'll explain when we get there. Let's just go."

Yang angrily walked out and Qrow followed, shutting the door behind him.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a hotel in the city, Weiss had woken up before her father did. She got out of bed, went outside into the hallway, silently shut the door, and attempted to call Pyrrha. She managed to get a ring. And another. It rang for five times before going to Pyrrha's voicemail greeting.

"Hello, you've reached Pyrrha Nikos. I'm sorry I can't answer at the moment, leave a message and I'll get back to you when I can."

Beep. Weiss sighed. She returned back to her room and tried to think of what to do next as she looked at the clock. It was 10:45am. Her father was still asleep. She tried to think of her next move. Usually her father was not a late sleeper.

 _He could wake up any minute now..._ the young woman thought to herself.

Weiss tried to remember the name of the hospital Pyrrha was taken to. She retraced the memories and remembered running through the hall that said the name in purple letters.

 _Everbright Hospital_

She recalled that it took 30 minutes to get to the hospital by plane, then another ten minutes from where they landed to plane to the hotel. But who knows how long it would take to walk there? The ice queen looked up the distance and knew that it would take a while. If only...

Jacques Schnee woke up, yawning as he sat up. "Oh my. Is it that late already?" Weiss nodded. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"I.. I didn't want to disturb you." she answered.

"I suppose in the long run, it doesn't matter much. Do you have your bags packed?"

"Yes."

He was still wearing his snow blue silk pajamas. "Well then, give me ten minutes to actually adorn myself in my proper attire and we will leave."

Suddenly his scroll rang. "Hello, Jacques Schnee, head of Schnee Dust Company. State your name and business." As the other person spoke, Weiss watched on. "I told you that the meeting had been cancelled because I have to get my daughter back home." He mused to himself. "Hmm... Alright, I'll do it. Hopefully the CCT being inoperative won't be an issue." He hung up, putting his scroll away. "Weiss, stay put. I'm going to be in an online business conference. I hope that the CCT being down won't interfere with this business affair."

After getting out of his pajamas and into his business attire, Mr. Schnee got out his laptop and set it on the desk. The conference went on, in spite of the CCT being down, but Weiss was restless and had no clue whether Pyrrha was alive or not. During the call, Weiss attempted to sneak away to call and/or speak to Pyrrha twice, but was caught both times; the first time by the pilot and the second time by her father. Then the pilot kept his eyes on her. He glared at her most of the time. She sat on the chair in shame, feeling crushed. There was nothing she could do.

Several hours later, after a long conference, they left their hotel room. Jacques handed the key back to the clerk and left the lobby. From there, they walked to their destination; an empty lot where their private jet was.

Weiss looked at Beacon Academy one last time. She heard the sound of a crow flying above her. She looked up, but saw nothing.

"Weiss?" her father asked.

"Coming, father!"

Weiss got her bags onto the plane and they took off. She stared out the window most of the time, thinking about her friends. The sun was setting behind them as they left for Atlas. Weiss looked down sadly as she and her father flew back home in the jet. Although she had a million things on her mind, she didn't say a word. In fact, she would end up being silent for days. She had nothing to say to her father or anyone else for that matter.

 _Pyrrha... I hope my efforts were not in vain..._

* * *

Qrow was out on the rooftops, scouting the scene. He received a phone call from Taiyang Xiao Long, who flew a small private jet that was about to depart for Patch.

The drunkard answered his scroll. "Hello, Taiyang."

"Hey, Qrow. I've got Yang and Ruby ready to be taken home. Where are ya?"

"In the city, doing damage patrol to see if there's nothing I can't fix."

"You ready to go? I've been waiting on ya for about thirty minutes."

"I'm ready to leave. I'll see you there."

"Pyrrha!" a voice called out. He looked closer and saw Jaune, wondering around and searching for his lost teammate. "Pyrrha!"

"On second thought, take them back to Patch without me." Qrow said. "I just remembered there's something I need do before I leave."

"Alright. Good luck, and stay safe."

"Take care." He hung up.

He jumped down from the rooftop.

"PYRRHA!" Jaune kicked a lone can on the ground in anger. He put his right hand to forehand in frustration, sighing. "It's no use. I've searched everywhere." The memory of his last moments with Pyrrha was fresh in his mind, even though the events took place 20 hours ago.

He remembered being shoved into a locker by her and thinking as he was launched away, _Pyrrha! What are you doing?! PYRRHA!_

After he landed and had the phone call with Weiss, he remembered his thoughts after he threw his scroll to the ground.

 _Pyrrha... Please... come back to me... I love you._

"Well, it can't get any worse." Then he heard a deafening roar; The Grimm showed up. Jaune got out his sword and shield.

"Go ahead, make my day." he scoffed.

"Hey, are you okay?" a voice asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

He sulked. "No, I've been searching for my friend all day. Her name is Pyrrha Nikos."

"You're in luck. I know where she is."

"Really?" Jaune looked at him with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Qrow nodded in affirmation. "Then please, take me to her!"

"Alright, although I haven't seen her in several hours. No way to tell if she survived."

Qrow ran off, with Jaune following right behind him.


	4. Say Something

Author's Notes:

-Guest named Huh, to answer your question, I kinda forgot that Jaune's shield doubled as a sheath for his sword. Oops! (I feel a bit embarrassed having to admit this mistake...) So let's just say that he found something to use as a sheath or made one from the skin of a Grimm he slayed in the fight.

-While this isn't necessarily a songfic, I'm sure you've noticed by now that most if not all of the chapter titles will be named after songs or part of the lyrics of a song. Sometimes part of a song might be used in the background for effect. Needless to say, I own nothing. Now then, moving on...

* * *

Qrow and Jaune went to Everbright Hopsital. They rushed through the automatic doors and panted as they reached the counter. For a moments, the assistant didn't even notice them. Then she blinked twice and saw the two men standing there.

"Hello, can I help you?" the assistant at the counter asked.

"Yes, we're here to see Miss Pyrrha Nikos." Qrow answered.

She looked at them with a strange, leery look. "Do either of you two have any relation to the patient?"

"I'm the one who brought her here. No relation."

"I'm her teammate. We're part of a team from Beacon Academy called team JNPR." Jaune answered.

"Right this way."

The assistant led them up a few flights of stairs to the third floor. While Jaune could keep up and nearly passed her pace, Qrow struggled to keep up. Eventually, after traveling up a few flights of stairs, they reached the third floor and went down this long, seemingly endless hallway lined with blue walls with a white wainscoting. As they roamed the halls, Jaune saw some doors that were kept open. He numerous different ailments victims were suffering from, including but not limited to; a professional huntress with several large claw marks on her stomach, a man with claw marks on his face, a guy with antlers suffering from a bullet wound to his knee, a little girl missing her entire left arm, a little boy who appeared to have been stabbed in the chest, blood and knife embedded in his sternum, most likely dead and a student that Jaune had seen around Beacon Academy, who had broken one of his legs and had the fibula bone sticking out of his body.

 _Goodness gracious, what happened to them?! What happened to Pyrrha?_

When the assistant finally stopped pacing, she had lead them to a room labeled 312. She opened the door and Jaune gasped as she saw the damage.

"Pyrrha... No..."

He ran to her to see her closer. She had been bruised and beaten by only one person. She had been impaled by an arrow to the stomach. Her wounds had been attended to and properly bandaged, but she was still unconscious. Her circlet was crooked and visibly damaged, and the silver chains with green teardrop emeralds under her hair had been snapped off.

"She's been unconscious ever since we got here." the assistant said, breaking the silence. "We're doing all we can, but... we fear our efforts alone aren't enough."

"Pyrrha..."

The three thought they heard a long beep from the Holter monitor, signaling death. Seized by panic, Jaune swiftly looked at the one above Pyrrha's head. But hers was still going, beating a steady rhythm. Even comatose, she was still fighting. The assistant realized it was coming from another room and ran off, mumbling something under her breath.

Jaune looked down sadly. "I thought Everbright's patient survival rate was higher."

Qrow grimly nodded. "Yes, but you must take into consideration that several people were wounded by Grimm and/or the White Fang. It also doesn't help that this hospital is understaffed."

He widened his eyes in disbelief. "Understaffed? How do you know that?"

"As I followed the assistant at the counter, who paced way too quickly for me to easily keep up with her, I fell behind and overheard one of the employees say that at least a dozen doctors and hospital workers were absent. Just when they need all hands on deck, some employees aren't there for whatever reason.

"Why... why would...?"

"My best guess is that they were injured or killed in the chaos."

[cue music-A Great Big World (feat. Christina Aguilera)-Say Something (I'm Giving Up on You)]

Jaune looked inconsolably at Pyrrha. She looked as fragile as a broken porcelain doll. The young man couldn't help but have tears escape from his eyes and fall down his face. The tears fell onto her lifeless body.

 _How... how can this be?_ he thought. _**  
**_

"Pyrrha..."

He sobbed silently.

 _This is my fault. I should have ran right to the tower instead of staying there, in that destroyed part of the city! I could have stopped her from fighting that wicked sorceress! I could have battled those Grimm quicker! And what's worse is that I never told her how I felt about her. How much she truly means to me. How much I... I love her... Even if she doesn't return these feelings, I'll always be loyal to her until the end. Please... Pyrrha... don't let this be the end...  
_

"Pyrrha... I've failed you. I should have been there for you." He softly grasped her hand. "Please... wake up... Say something... Anything!"

His hand felt slightly cold from Pyrrha's touch, but he didn't even notice.

 _I would have followed you and helped you to face her if you just didn't push me away!_

Jaune examined her closer, noticing that the blood was mainly on the center of the bandage used to wrap up her wound.

"I shouldn't even be alive." he spoke so quietly that Qrow couldn't hear. "I'm not even strong as everyone thinks I am... You should be the one mourning over me. I should have been the one who got hurt..." He sobbed, his tears continuing to fall.

Qrow remained silent, unsure what to say. He looked away from the fallen huntress. "Jaune, I'm sorry..." The blond warrior said nothing. "Perhaps it would be for the best to leave this place. Staying here won't change anything."

"Please... Pyrrha... say something..."

Jaune, who was about to walk away and felt something grasp his hand.

[the music ends]

He turned to Pyrrha as she moaned, slowly sitting up, opening her eyes and looked towards her partner as she awoke.

"Pyrrha!"

He threw his arms around her as if he hadn't seen her in forever. Then again, when the love of one's life is missing and they have no way of figuring out what has even become of them, time seems to slow down and feel like forever is passing them by. To him, twenty hours felt like forever. Twenty hours were long enough. Pyrrha was a bit surprised by his initial reaction, but then she smiled and embraced him, even as his tears fell onto her bare skin.

"Jaune..." she spoke. "I... I thought I'd never see you again."

He looked at her, blinking to get rid of tears and tremendously relived to see her alive. "I'm glad to see you again."

"Well, I'll be darned, she's awake." Qrow commented. "I didn't want to say anything to crush your hopes young man, but I thought she wouldn't make it. Now, I don't know if you believe in a god or goddess or even a group of them, but if you do, you might want to say some prayers of thanks before you retire for the night."

Jaune turned to Qrow and nodded in agreement and understanding. "Qrow, do you mind stepping out of the room briefly? I wish to speak to Pyrrha alone."

"Certainly."

He stepped out of Pyrrha's hospital room, closing the door behind him. As soon as he did that, he realized he made a mistake. He felt that he shouldn't be asking Pyrrha about what happened. Silence permeated the room for a minute or two. Jaune's eyes darted to the windows then back to Pyrrha as the wounded warrior kept her eyes on him the entire time.

 _I just barged in. I shouldn't have been there. As curious as I am, I shouldn't be asking...  
_

Finally, Pyrrha asked, "You want answers as to what was happened last night, don't you?"

"I do, but... I realize that it's not my place to know." He awkwardly rubbed his hand against his left elbow. "I barged in on a private matter between you and headmaster Ozpin." He slowly turned away, sadly. "It's none of my business."

"No, Jaune!" She sighed. He turned to face her. "You were there. You saw her. You saw the evil maiden rise to power. You deserve to know the truth."

"So... what happened?"

"Well..." She turned to him with the most serious face she could muster, which was actually only partially serious, partially sorrowful and a little bit whimsical. "Have you ever heard the story of the maidens?"

Jaune immediately smiled. "Yeah. I loved that bedtime story as a kid. What about it?"

"What if I told you...?" Pyrrha hesitated, eyes looking away from him. "that it was real?"

His eyebrows were raised in the blink of an eye and he gasped. "That.. that's crazy!"

She sighed and nodded. "It's true. Ozpin and a few of his close associates are responsible for guarding those who have the maidens power. And you just saw one of those four maidens during the procedure I was attempting to go through."

He blinked. "Okay... I'm listening."

"The maidens have been around for thousands of years. It was initially common knowledge, but overtime, their existence faded into myth and legend. These women can use incredible powers without the use of dust, aura or their Semblance, making them incredibly powerful beings. The power is always transferred to a young woman. When a maiden dies, the power is normally transferred to last person in their thoughts. If this person is a man or older woman, then it is transferred to a random young lady. This ensures that no one holds onto the power forever."

"So which of these maidens is the subject of this story?"

"Fall. The previous fall maiden, a young teenager named Amber, was attacked and had part of her power stolen. One of Ozpin's associates was able to find her and put her on life support. But since this phenomenon had never occurred before, they had no idea what would happen. Amber's remaining power could easily go to her assailant, who was the last person in her thoughts, or it might seek out it's other half. In hopes of preventing this happening, General Ironwood devised a solution; taking Amber's remaining aura and compressing it into another young woman. That woman they wanted to compress Amber's aura into... was me."

"That's... wrong."

"That's exactly what I said, but as Ironwood put it, 'Desperate times call for desperate measures.' Ozpin and his associates needed to know if I was willing to undergo this procedure before the end of the Vytal Festival. So when I was speaking you about destiny, what I referred to as the ability to instantly fulfill your destiny but at the cost of who you were, gaining the fall maiden's power was what I meant. There was no guarantee that it would work or even what would happen to me as a result. So there I was, during the festival, keeping an enormous burden on my shoulders while everyone else was blissfully unaware of the impending disaster."

"You... you were scared, weren't you?"

She looked at her hand. "I wasn't just scared. I was dreadful. I was about to make a decision that could alter my destiny, my entire future, for better or for worse. But then..." Painful memories of her duel with Penny flashed through her mind. "when the last duel occurred... the Grimm attacked.." She remembered the Grimm breaking through the white barrier surrounding the arena. "and the Vytal Festival had come to its end..."

"That's when you had to make your choice."

"Me and Ozpin knew time was running out. But it was in that chaos, when the Grimm had attacked Vale, that I knew the world needed a hero. So I knew that I would save the world, or die trying. That's why I was willing to risk it all, put everything on the line, my own life included- to save the world from darkness by becoming the fall maiden."

"But then... when that woman appeared and killed the young woman... Amber.."

Pyrrha looked down. "It was all over." She breathed in deeply. "The power reunited with its other half, making Cinder an extremely dangerous opponent."

"Cinder? That's her name?" Pyrrha nodded, confirming his statement. "How were you able to identify her?"

"After engaging the woman in a duel, Ruby appeared and called her out for hacking into the CCT. Then she was about to fire an arrow at her, which would have killed her, but I intercepted it, and ended up impaled in the process. As I lie there, suffering in agony, I remember hearing her laugh, then I heard Ruby screaming my name and this flash of white light as everything faded away." She paused and put her hand onto her wound. "How I survived that lethal blow is beyond me."

Jaune remained silent for a few minutes. "So I can assume you have no idea what happened to the fall maiden?"

"No one knows, but she's probably out there, somewhere..." She slowly rose to her feet only to fall to her knee.

"Pyrrha! Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine." She got up and sat on the bed. "I just have a twisted ankle, that's all. I think I twisted both of them..."

"Pyrrha, there's something I..." Jaune began.

Suddenly, one of the workers came running in, slamming Qrow against the door as she dashed into the room. After regaining his balance, he leaned against the door, keeping it open. Jaune sighed.

"Alright, you're awake." the nurse said. "Now then, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Does your head or any part of your body hurt?"

"Aside from the stomach wound I received earlier, my twisted ankles, and that I ache all over, I'm fine."

"Do you remember anything that happened?"

"I remember everything. Do you need details?"

"Not necessary." She ran off to get something. A few minutes later, she returned with something in her hand. "Now you can take your medicine." She handed her a container. "You'll need to take this once a day for a whole week."

After receiving instructions from the doctor, taking her first dose of medicine and doing some paperwork, Pyrrha Nikos was allowed to leave the hospital. As Jaune and Pyrrha exited the building, the sun was about to set. A crow flew over the building and into the sky.

"We better move before Ren and Nora send a search party after us." Jaune mentioned. "I'd call them, but my scroll is busted."

"Then let's go." Pyrrha stated.

* * *

As the two former Beacon Academy students walked down the street arm in arm, Jaune saw the sun setting in front of them, painting the blue sky with yellow and orange hues. The young man smiled as he took in the semi serene scene around him. If it weren't for the occasional ruins of destroyed buildings he saw, Jaune Arc would try to dismiss these horrible events as a nightmare that he just woke up from. But he was smart enough to tell apart dreams from reality. He noticed that Pyrrha was looking away from the ruins with a tormented look and a blank stare.

"Pyrrha, what's wrong?"

"I just realized..." she began. "What are we going to tell Ren and Nora?"

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked, bewildered. "I mean... we wouldn't keep secrets from our teammates, would we?"

She groaned. "I don't know. Everything's gone wrong." She folded her arms, hands covering her elbows as she turned the other way. "I'm just lost and confused."

"I know Ozpin wanted you to keep this quiet, but considering that he's... gone... would it matter?"

"Even with Ozpin missing, I still feel like I shouldn't tell them. Also..." Pyrrha paused, putting her fist to her heart. "would they even be able to handle the truth?"

He put his hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her. "Personally speaking, I think we should tell them. But that's just me."

"Tell them what?" a familiar voice asked.

The two of them turned to see Cardin Winchester and his team, CRDL. The quartet stood there, most carrying various objects with them. Sky Lark was carrying a small metal case, Russel Thrush carried a bunch of fishing rods on his back, Dove Bronzewing carried two buckets, one in each hand and Cardin had his hands empty.

"Oh great." Jaune sarcastically stated, folding his arms. "My second least favorite person on the planet and his entire team."

"Oh come on, Jauney boy." He spread out his arms, pretending to welcome him. "Is that any way to treat an old friend?"

"You were never my friend, Cardin!" Jaune retorted. "If you think I'm going to forget how you treated me first semester, then you are terribly mistaken."

Pyrrha didn't like Cardin or his group of cronies either, but she tried to be more civil and polite. "And what have you been up to since the chaos unfolded?"

"Glad you asked. We were all dragged to this dark and small warehouse that couldn't fit everyone, so they asked some people to get apartments and we bailed right out of there. Since then, we've been searching the city for supplies. The fish market was completely cleared of all its inventory, so we had to catch some ourselves." Cardin answered. "Fortunately, Sky happens to be very good at the skill. We even caught some whoopers."

"Oh, well good for you then." Jaune said, clinching his teeth.

"And what have you been up to?" Dove asked.

"That's none of your concern!" Jaune angrily yelled.

Pyrrha looked sadly at her partner. "Jaune?"

"Really? Come on, tell us." Russel prodded.

Jaune groaned. "If you really must know, I've been losing my mind. I have been trying to find my missing teammate for the last 20 hours!"

"20 hours?" Pyrrha looked at her wounded body. "I've been unconscious for 20 hours?!"

Cardin smirked. "Ha. You act as though you're surprised. Although I'm surprised that you suffered so much damage. Guess you're really not all that, are you?"

Pyrrha looked down sadly, putting her hand to her left elbow. Jaune glared at the leader. "Can it, you bastard! Her opponent was extremely powerful. She has abilities beyond your comprehension!"

"That's such a bold claim for someone who wasn't there."

"I saw her before Pyrrha ran off to go face her. She could have killed me!"

The entirity of team CRDL blinked their eyes in reverse order of teammates.

"Okay, I stand corrected."

"Whoever this powerful woman is..." Sky began. "She sounds like she's just as dangerous as a Grimm... maybe even more dangerous..."

"I don't know. Remember that time in the Forever Fall forest?" Russel asked.

"Don't remind me..." Cardin grumbled.

Pyrrha smirked and folded her arms. "You're still feeling humiliated about the events of that day, aren't you?"

"If only Jaune had done what he was supposed to do..." Cardin complained.

"What was he supposed to do?"

Jaune widened his eyes in terror. "Uh... ugh..."

Cardin smirked and turned to the red-haired huntress. "You don't know?"

"Know what? Jaune?"

Jaune held up his hands and rocked them back and forth silently pleading, _Please don't say anything!_ Of course, Cardin payed no heed to Jaune's warning. "Jaune was supposed to hit you with a jar of red sap and then release rapier wasps upon you."

Pyrrha gasped. "What? Jaune..."

"That's what he wanted me to do." Jaune quickly answered. He closed his eyes. "But I couldn't." Then he glared at Cardin. "Because nobody messes with my team. I'll never forget that day. Heck, that's a story I'll be telling my kids one day."

Cardin laughed. "Assuming you survive long enough to have them."

"Who asked you?!"

"Come on, Jaune, we should get moving." Pyrrha walked forward and Jaune followed, only for her to trip on a giant hole in the ground. "Ahh!" She collapsed on her side, moaning in agony.

"Pyrrha!" He ran to her as Cardin and Russel laughed at her misfortune.

"Dang twisted ankles..." she mumbled. "I don't think I can continue..."

"I'm not leaving you here." He then scooped up Pyrrha into his arms and ran off.

"Jaune..." She threw her arms around his neck. "You don't have to do this."

"You've twisted both your ankles. I shouldn't be forcing you to put your full weight on them after being so brutally injured." Pyrrha blushed. He stopped and looked around. No one was there. "There's something I wanted to tell you but didn't get the chance to earlier. I... I love you, Pyrrha. You mean the world to me."

"Jaune... I should have just told you that I love you before running off to my near-death. You're my best friend and I couldn't forgive myself if anything happened to you."

"Pyrrha..." He pulled her closer to him and softly placed his lips upon hers. Pyrrha was not surprised by his actions, and returned the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck even tighter, never wanting to let go. She could feel his warmth. Eventually, after doing this for about two minutes, they broke apart, Pyrrha and Jaune gasping for air, albeit the former was louder.

She sighed romantically. "Jaune..."

He smiled, then he saw the sun set and freaked out. He was running out of time. "Oh man, we gotta move!"

Jaune Arc speed off, hoping to get to the apartment before an unnecessary search party was sent.

* * *

Meanwhile, an orange-haired girl looked out the window. The sun had almost set on this long, tiring day.

"I'm worried." Nora said. "Jaune and Pyrrha still aren't back."

Ren, who was cooking dinner for them, sighed and looked downcast. "I know." He added the fish to the wok full of vegetables and looked at the rice in the pot. "I suppose it's time we call the police force."

Suddenly the sound of a door being opened was heard. Jaune walked in, carrying his warrior princess in his arms. Nora gasped, "You're back!" He gently set her down on the couch. "And you found Pyrrha!"

"Oh wow... That was taxing..." he said to himself. Immediately his stomach growled upon smelling the aroma of Ren's cooking. "Damn, in my search for Pyrrha, I haven't eaten all day."

"I guess fear really shuts down your other psychological needs..." Pyrrha said to herself.

"Your timing is impeccable." Ren stated. "We were just about to call for a search party." A timer went off. "Also, dinner is served."

The four of them went to the table and filled their plates with Ren's salmon stir-fry. Jaune ate at a moderately fast pace while the rest were not quite as fast. Pyrrha tried to smile in attempt to hide the emotional pain she felt inside.

"So... Pyrrha... I know you may not to talk about it, but... what happened back there? With Ozpin?" Ren asked.

"And how did you end up so injured?" Nora also inquired.

Pyrrha sighed. "It's a long story..."


	5. Just Sleep, Just Dream

Back at the warehouse, Sun was emotionally distant from everyone else. He sat on the ground, knees to his face and looked back at his teammates as they got bowls of beefy vegetable soup for their dinner. Neptune carried his bowl in both hands, Scarlet held his with his right hand and Sage balanced two bowls on his left arm. Using his opposite hand, he set one down in front of Sun. His teammates sat down and began eating. Sun pushed the bowl away and stared into nothing, despondent. Neptune noticed, put his spoon down, and approached him. He knelt by him, trying to comfort his best bud by putting his hand on his right shoulder.

"Sun... I know it must be hard to see her go, but maybe it's for the better."

"Neptune... You can't even imagine how horrible it feels." He buried his face in his knees. "I love her, and I just let her slip through my fingers."

 _What kind of potential boyfriend am I? Oh wait... I'm not... I'm just a fool. A lovestruck, lovesick fool who has no chance with Blake Belladonna.  
_

"Does she know that you love her?"

He turned his head up briefly before looking away, crestfallen. "I confessed my feelings for her on the rooftop, but considering that she ran away, it is highly unlikely that she feels the same."

Sage swallowed a spoonful of soup. "Yeah, I think it's safe to say that she has no feelings for you."

He put his right fist to his cheek. "No need to rub it in."

Scarlet scolded, "Don't be rude, Sage!"

What's a fool to do? What was he to do?

 _At this point,_ _I've really got two choices._ He looked at his teammates; Neptune Vasilias, the laid-back comedian who's scared of water, Sage Ayanna, the brains of the group and Scarlet David, the brawler. _Go back home to Haven Academcy with my teammates, try to forget about her, and move on..._

An image of a dark-haired beauty crossed his mind. He remembered her prom outfit, how beautiful she looked that evening, and the sorrow he felt when she left him.

 _Or... Abandon my teammates, go after a girl who I have no chance with, and try to aid and protect her any way I can._

Sun now had an important and difficult decision to make. How could he abandon his team? How could he leave them for the girl he loved so dearly? How could he not help Blake? How could possibly help her if he left? Sun looked at his teammates and noticed that while Neptune and Sage were still eating, Scarlet had already consumed his fill. Sun internally sighed. Because of his lack of appetite, he didn't eat. He laid his back against the concrete floor, staring at the ceiling, imaging Blake approaching him, extending her hand to help him up.

 _Oh Blake, my love. Where are you?_

* * *

Meanwhile, in a deserted part of the city, Blake was asleep in an abandoned, partly destroyed building. She slept in a messy bed, with the cover sheets partially undone, on her left side with her right arm lapped across her stomach and her left arm pretending to reach something that wasn't even there. She then woke up from her nap. She slowly stood up, examining her surroundings.

 _I'm still in the same place. I wasn't kidnapped in my sleep. That's good._

She then noticed it was nighttime. Alas, the beautiful night sky could not be seen with the dark grey clouds that lingered in the city, refusing to leave. Then again, she could use the darkness of the night to her advantage. She sat down on the mattress and tried to recall everything that happened in the last 24 hours.

 _Okay, it's been roughly 24 hours since the Vytal Festival was disrupted. 24 hours since the Grimm, the White Fang, and Adam... were all here. When the Grimm started to get too dangerous, when the Grimm dragon appeared, the White Fang fled, and of course, Adam Taurus would have left along with his troops. Since I can presume every White Fang member fled in the attack, there is no way I can capture and interrogate one of their members to find Adam's location. But they do have allies. Unfortunately, there's only one man I know who isn't a Faunus, or part of the White Fang... Roman Torchwick._

Memories of that despicable burglar came to her mind. His orange colored hair concealing his right eye, the black bowler hat with a red trim, his grey scarf and white coat. Roman wielded a cane as a weapon and he was a cross between a gentleman and a complete crook. She then remembered him calling her 'kitty', during their first encounter. Ugh... She hated being called that by crooks and total strangers.

He had to be hiding somewhere. But where?

 _Where could he possibly be?_

Blake stepped out of the building through the big hole in the wall. She slowly roamed around the city. As she saw the destruction, the possible lives that were taken in the chaos that happened the night before, she tried to recess those empathic emotions to the bottom of her soul. She had enough negative emotions to suppress, and she didn't need anymore. She also did not want to face another Grimm. It would only slow her down. She turned the other way, pretending not to care.

Then she saw a poster on a red-bricked wall. The poster showed an image of a wanted criminal in between the first and second lines of the paper, which read;

 _Wanted; Roman Torchwick_

 _For thievery of dust, advanced technology, and money, breaking and entering, evading police, resisting arrest, armed assault, refusing to answer to proper authorities when interrogated, lying under oath, trespassing, aiding and abiding criminals, assisting the White Fang terrorists and high treason.  
_

 _Wanted dead or alive_

 _Armed and very dangerous, vicious robber who has a legion of men who can fight for him. Challenge at your own risk!_

 _Reward-_ Ⱡ _100,000 Lien_

Blake took the poster and reexamined it. In the photo, he held a plate in his hands with the number _274761453_ on it. She folded the wanted poster into her pocket and mused to herself for a brief moment.

 _Hmm... Considering that this poster was printed two days ago, it is unlikely that they caught him. Since he's also dangerous, not many would hunt after him unless they're crazy or covet the cash reward._

But Blake didn't fall into either of these categories. She didn't want cash, to her it was just a secondary reason, a bonus. What she wanted was information. And she was going to get it, one way or another.

* * *

It was the end of the day in the JNPR apartment complex. Jaune and Pyrrha sat next to each other on top of the bed in the master bedroom.

"I can't believe we didn't tell them the entire truth." Jaune said.

"It's not like what they won't know won't hurt them, will it?" Pyrrha asked.

The two recalled what Pyrrha told Nora and Ren at the dinner table.

"It's a long story." Pyrrha answered.

"So what happened?" Ren asked.

Pyrrha set down her fork on her plate. "Well, a while ago, Ozpin had asked me to take hold of this secret special powerful weapon, hidden far from the common folk of Beacon Academy. I was unsure if I was ready to take the responsibility, so he gave me until the end of the Vytal Festival to make my decision. Eventually, after the Grimm attacked, I decided to take responsibility for the weapon, but unfortunately, it ended up in the wrong hands. A raven-haired thief took it and proceeded to wreck havoc. I knew I had to stop her, but unfortunately, I was no match for her power or her weapon and I was swiftly defeated. I was nearly killed until Ruby appeared, calling out the woman, named Cinder, for her previous crimes, including messing with the CCT, and trying to save her, I ended up impaled in the stomach with an arrow. Then there was the sound of the woman's laughter, Ruby calling my name and this blinding white light as everything faded away."

"White light. That is most unusual." Ren commented. "Wait a second. Wasn't Cinder one of the transfer students from Haven who arrived early?"

"Maybe she's a different Cinder?" Nora asked.

"I'm doubtful of that. Either way, she's gone now."

"Same here, Ren. Same here."

The dinner resumed as usual, shifting to a more happy and optimistic tone. After recalling what occurred, Pyrrha looked back at Jaune.

"I'm sure everything will be fine." Pyrrha said.

Jaune smiled. "I suppose you have a point there."

Pyrrha yawned. "So now then, where am I going to sleep?"

"I..." He hesitated. "I.. I did not think this through."

When Professor Oobleck assigned them an apartment, he had given them a space with only three beds since there were only three team members present at the time. Now this left them with a minor dilemma.

"I could just sleep on the couch, I suppose."

"No, Pyrrha. You've been injured. You deserve to sleep on a nice soft bed. I'll take the couch."

Ms. Nikos mused to herself for a moment. "Maybe we could sleep... together?"

Jaune felt his face burn. "Together?"

"Yeah. The bed should be big enough for both of us, right?"

Jaune meekly nodded. "Alright, now then, I suppose we best retire for the night and actually get into our night clothes."

As Pyrrha looked for her nightgown, Jaune got into his blue colored pajamas. Then Pyrrha realized... none of her stuff was here.

 _And my weapon is destroyed and my shield is lost._

"Oh man. I just realized. None of my stuff is here. And Milo and Akouo are gone. The former destroyed and the latter lost."

"That is a significant problem." Jaune noted. "We will have to fix that issue soon."

The young huntress proceeded to remove her heeled boots, next was her circlet, then her belt, followed by her red sash, then her jewelry and finally her armor. When she was done, she stood there in her black shorts with a taught red cloth covering her breasts. Jaune turned away, trying to be respectful. This was not the first time he had seen her like this, but for some reason, he felt even more embarrassed than usual.

"Uh, Jaune. It's ok to look. You don't have to avert your eyes."

He turned back to her, chuckling. "I.. If you say so."

She tucked herself under the covers, closing her eyelids and Jaune soon followed. He looked at Pyrrha, sleeping on her side. He wasn't sure why, but he gently wrapped his arms around her and pushed himself closer to her. Pyrrha briefly opened her eyes, surprised by his actions, but she liked his warm, comforting stalwart embrace, so she said nothing and closed her eyes again.

 _To the gods and goddesses of this realm... Thank you... For bringing Pyrrha back to me. I would especially like to thank Lady Luck, Lady Destiny, Lady Fate and Lady Karma. Pyrrha means everything to me. I will never take her for granted and I will love, cherish and protect her until the end of my days._

And so, after concluding his mental prayer, he soon fell asleep with the girl of his dreams in his arms.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, a plane landed in a forest. The landing site was in a dirt circle with trees surrounding the circle. When the plane landed, a middle-aged blond haired man stepped out and breathed in the smell of the wild.

"We're home." Taiyang said. He looked at Ruby, who was still unconscious, then at Yang, who hadn't even said a word since she got on. She got up and approached him, still not saying a word. "I know it's been a long day, and I can't find the right words to say, but it's alright. We're home now. It's safe here." She walked forward as Taiyang went back to the plane. When he exited, he was carrying an unconscious Ruby in his arms. "I hate to ask, but can you use your other arm?" Using her left arm, she opened the door and Taiyang entered the home. Yang followed behind him, taking in the sight of the wooden floor and the pictures of the landscape on the wall over nearby the stairs. He set Ruby down on the couch. "I'll be right back. I'm going to get Zwei and the rest of our luggage." He then left to get the dog and the remaining luggage from the cargo hold.

Yang walked over to the couch and looked at Ruby. While unconscious, she remained uninjured.

 _Ruby... You don't know just how lucky you are._ She paused to herself for a moment, looking at her right arm that was no longer there. _But was it bad luck that cost me my arm? Or was it my recklessness?  
_

Before she could answer her question, her father reentered the house with Zwei in his dog cage and the rest of their bags. He shut the door and opened the dog cage. Zwei ran out of his cage happily wagged his tail upon being back home. He then saw Yang and tried to lick her, but she sadly walked away.

"No, Zwei. Nothing's alright." Yang spoke for the first time in several hours.

He whimpered and went to his bed, just lying there.

"So is there anything you'd like to talk about?" Taiyang asked.

"Can it wait until morning? I'm exhausted." Yang responded.

"Very well then. You deserve your rest. Goodnight my sunny little dragon."

She briefly smiled, but it faded away just as quickly. She went up the stairs and placed herself in the spare bedroom, wanting to isolate herself from the others. Using her left arm, she closed the pale blue curtains, threw the blanket off the mattress and collapsed on the bed on her left side. She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep being free from the pain that was her new reality.

Taiyang set Ruby onto her room, now in her pajamas and tucked her in. Then he gently lifted her head and set a red pillow underneath it.

 _She may be unconscious, but she'll be alright. I want to believe she'll be okay._ he thought to himself. _But what about Yang?_

After turning off the lights and exiting the room, he went to the spare bedroom to find Yang asleep, slightly shivering. He picked up the blanket and draped it over her.

"Goodnight Yang."

He closed the door, leaving her to her slumber.

* * *

Cinder woke up on the ground with black mist surrounding her. She got up, the left side of her skull exposed for all to see. A missing arm and an empty eye socket. She looked around her, trying to find her friends.

"Hello? Mercury?" No answer. "Emerald?"

Then saw a white light coming towards her. She ran away from it.

A voice screamed at her, "You will pay for what you've done!"

As she ran from the light, she tripped on a certain shield, Akouo, and fell on the ground. The light was closing in on her. She was soon engulfed in it.

"No, no! AHH!"

Emerald woke up, gasping and panting. After three breaths, she calmed down, but still felt agitated. She looked at her room. Like the walls of the palace, her walls and ceiling were dark purple. The purple floor was decorated with black carpets and her bedsheets were bright green, contrasting from the rest of the room. Next to her bed was a black wood nightstand with a Beowolf shaped lamp. Purple crystals arose from the ground up nearby the windows, but since they were located to the side, they didn't block Emerald's view of the sky. She got up and looked out the window, pushing aside the black curtains hanging on the rod.

 _This is nuts. I can't even tell apart day from night. If it weren't for the Grimm, I'd step out and get some fresh air._

She exited the room, only to find Mercury standing there in the hall with a smirk on his face.

"I can't sleep." Emerald answered. "I know Salem wanted us to rest, but I can't get Cinder's injury out of my mind."

"It's that bad?"

"Yeah, it is. I had a nightmare of her being destroyed by that light. Every time I close my eyes for three seconds, I see Cinder's injured body. What if she doesn't make it? What if she never wakes up? What if...?"

"Emerald!" Mercury grasped her shoulders. "I know you're scared. I'm scared too. But we have to move forward. And besides..." He lifted up his jeans, revealing his prosthetic legs. "if I can adapt to fake legs, then I'm sure Cinder can overcome these newfound injures."

She sighed as he rolled his jeans back down. "Part of me wishes we had something to do. Just to get my mind off the current situation." A paper airplane glided across the air in the hallway before landing at Emerald's feet. She picked up the note and read the words written in blank ink. " _'To Emerald and Mercury, I have a new assignment for you. Report to the conference room at once. Salem.'_ "

"Hmm. It seems your wish has been granted. It's almost as if she's a genie."

Emerald rolled her eyes and started walking away. "Let's try not to insult our boss's boss and get moving."

Mercury ran to catch up with her. "I wasn't insulting her!"

And so, the two went off to the entrance of the conference room. The two walked through the halls, eventually making it to a big metal door. Emerald opened the door, which creaked loudly, and the two entered.

"Hello? Madame Salem?" Emerald asked.

She believed she was speaking to empty air as she and Mercury looked around to find no one else there. That is until a familiar voice spoke, "Hello, Emerald, Mercury."

The two turned around to find Salem standing there. They bowed their heads in respect before looking her in the eye.

"You have summoned us?" Emerald asked.

"Yes, I have a new assignment for you." Salem answered You'll want to bring your weapons with you for this one, as you will have to go back to Beacon Academy. Your task is to find files on the girl responsible for Cinder's condition and bring the information you acquire back to me. As you are well-aware, Grimm are surrounding the area. You don't want to fight them if it's not necessary, but you may not have a choice in the matter. Another factor you must bear in mind is that there are police officers, professional hunters and huntresses around the border of Beacon Academy. Exercise caution during this task."

"So what you're saying is that we not only have to watch out for Grimm, but avoid being caught by the authorities and hunters as well?" Mercury asked.

"Precisely."

Emerald nodded. "It will be done."

"Perfect..." The two left the room, leaving Salem to her thoughts. A Seer appeared, showing her the chaos occurring in Vale. She smirked maliciously. "One city has already crumbled. Soon, it will be the world that will crumble at my feet."


	6. The Sound of Silence

The following evening, high in the sky, a girl closed her umbrella and safely landed on the rooftops. She closed her parasol and put it away. She collapsed to her knees, trying not to succumb to fatigue.

 _Okay... Now that I'm finally out of the sky, I can focus on trying to find Roman._

Neopolitan quickly whipped out her scroll and texted him,

 _Hey Roman. I hope you managed to defeat that puny little girl. I managed to land on one of the rooftops in Vale. Problem is I'm stuck on top of the Robin EM Casino. Can you please pick me up from here? Thanks._

As time passed by, she looked at the sky and all its treasures; the twinkling stars, the moon and the natural beauty of it all. She stared at the sky for some time. Ten minutes had passed. She sent him another message.

 _Roman?_

She counted the stars to try and occupy her time. After counting to at least 30, she got bored.

 _Roman?_

 _What is taking him so long?_ Neo thought to herself.

She texted him, _Rooooomannnnn? Answer me, please!_

The young criminal arose from the ground and replayed the events in her head. Ruby was fighting against her and Roman. The last thing she remembered before being swept away with the wind was Roman calling out her name, or her nickname.

"Neo!"

She had been stuck in the air for hours afterward. She hadn't slept and hardly ate. But she felt no hunger. She felt exhaustion and fear more than anything else.

 _Oh, where is he?!_

After realizing that he wasn't coming, she had to search for him herself. She looked around and saw an entrance to the building down below. She went through the door and ran down the stairs. She found herself on the tenth floor, which looked like a small narrow hallway with several doors leading to separate rooms. She then recalled that in addition to being a casino, this building was also a hotel, shopping center and had a really nice high-end restaurant located on the third floor.

She continued to descend the stairway, hoping that she wouldn't be seen by anyone. Worst case scenario, she could disguise herself as a bellhop or some other employee. As she made it to the third floor, she was seen by a chef who gasped and tried to make a run for it. She ran after him, knocked out the man with her umbrella, then pulled her hidden blade out of her parasol and stabbed him right in the chest, ending his life then and there. After doing this, she noticed the hidden cameras, so she swiftly destroyed them. Then she proceeded to hide the dead chef's body by dragging it into the kitchen. She stole his wallet before turning her attention to the ingredients and kitchen utensils. Since she was there, she grabbed a big sack and filled it up with as much non-perishable food as she could, as well as grabbing a few other supplies. Then she found some rope, tape and turned it into a makeshift backpack.

Once she made it to the ground floor, she stuck out through the back entrance. She saw a fire in the distance. While dodging Grimm and running across collapsed rooftops and ruins, she tried desperately to find Roman. Then she stopped in her tracks, her blood turning to ice, her inner fire snuffing out and tears coming to her eyes.

 _No... Roman..._

She laid her eyes upon the site of the plane crash. Neopolitan fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

 _I can't believe you're gone._

Nothing was there in the crash. His cane, his hat, everything disappeared with him. She hid herself in the ruins, trying to avoid being seen by the police, who had arrived. She quickly ran away to avoid being seen by them and to try and outrun the Grimm. Much to her surprise, she wasn't followed by the creatures of darkness.

She heaved for breath and planned her next move.

 _Where do I go now?_

* * *

Later that evening, Blake was still searching for Roman. She had been searching for the last day, with no luck. Her sleep schedule and internal clock were extremely messed up, but to be honest, she didn't even care at this point.

 _I've been searching for a day. So far, I've gotten... nothing. Hopefully here I can get some answers.  
_

She arrived at the port warehouse, where she had seen Roman ally himself with White Fang agents. She remembered her and Sun being on a stakeout here.

"Did I miss anything?" Sun asked as he arrived.

Blake looked at him. "Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there."

"Cool." He extended his palm, giving her a green apple. "I stole you some food!"

Blake gave him a skeptical look. "Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?"

Sun countered, "Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" She glared at him angrily. "Okay, too soon!"

The wind blew all around them, and they saw the searchlights of Bullhead, which was this huge plane, looking for a landing spot before descending in the midst of the cargo containers. Once the plane landed, a ramp was extended for a black hooded individual wearing a metallic fanged mask and a red emblem on the back of his vest.

"Oh no..." Blake whispered.

Sun blinked. "Is that them?"

Blake stared closely at the blood red wolf emblem on the back of the man's outfit. The symbol of the White Fang. "Yes... It's _them_."

A White Fang Soldier motioned with his rifle to the other White Fang members to get them hurry up. "All right, grab the tow cables!"

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" he inquired.

Blake stared down sadly, surveying the scene below. "No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." She closed her eyes in despair and opened them when she heard Roman's voice for the first time.

"Hey! What's the holdup!?" The soldiers looked at Roman Torchwick, gesturing them to hurry up as he came down the ramp. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

Blake was in complete shock. "This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a Human." She stood up and began to unsheathe the katana of her weapon, Gambol Shroud. "Especially not one like that."

Sun raised in eyebrows in alarm. "Hey, what are you doing?!"

She ran off edge of the roof, fell to the ground in a couch, then hid behind one of the containers, and as she returned to the present, she was doing the same once again. She checked to be sure the coast was clear and then carefully entered the warehouse, examining her surroundings. There was no one here. She thoroughly examined the warehouse for any clues as to where they might have went. There were several boxes of Dust containers there, all stacked on top of each other, forming a row of ten boxes with one on the top and to the side, a four by four box grid. Amidst the many boxes, she saw a note on top of the four by four box. She gingerly climbed up the wooden crates and retrieved the note.

It read, _Go to Warehouse 2 when Dust is retrieved. Cinder and her allies await me there. Take everything with you.  
_

 _Cinder... Who is she? A member of the White Fang perhaps?_

She pocketed the note. She then saw a tiny white slip of paper that was miniature version of a map of the city. The map was marked with red circles and red X's. She tried to figure out what they meant, but she had no clue. The only way to find out was to go to a circle or X. She chose to go to one of the X's.

 _This could be a trap,_ she reminded herself. _but if it'll help me find answers, I don't have much choice._

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Atlas, a plane landed in a small area of blue stone adjacent to a large mansion. Two servants opened the silver gates and then stood by as the plane landed. The doors opened as the plane formed a ramp. Jacques Schnee stepped out, breathed in the cold air and smiled without a trace of warmth in his stare.

"Finally, we have arrived back home." Weiss rolled along her big square suitcase off the ramp and onto the good. "It feels good to be back, doesn't it Weiss?" The snow angel didn't answer. She turned away sadly, leaving to drag her suitcase to her room. "Now then, Blanche." He turned to one of the servants in the house. "Get Weiss's remaining luggage from the cargo hold and bring it to her room."

She respectfully bowed to him before carrying out her task. As Weiss rolled along one of her suitcases to her room, Blanche followed behind her, carrying both her duffel bags, one in each hand. Weiss looked at the white walls, this particular hallway being lined with paintings of snowflakes falling, rampaging blizzards or one showing a snow capped evergreen forest. She turned away and continued walking along the dark blue carpet until she reached her room. After opening the door and entering her chambers, the two gently set her bags down in front of her bed. The only light in the room came from the moon shining its light through the window. In spite of the little light present, Blanche saw the tormented look on the young girl's face.

"Are you alright, petite snowflake?" Blanche asked in a kind, warming voice.

Estelle Blanche was an older woman in her mid 60's with silvery white hair in a bun and snow blue eyes. She wore an ankle length white dress that covered her arms with snow blue lace around the hem and shoulders. Although they couldn't be seen most of the time black flats on her small feet. She was one of the few employees left who worked under Nicholas Schnee and completely remembered what it was like during those days. Everyone else had either retired, lost part or all of their memory or had passed on from this world.

Weiss folded her arms and turned away. Blanche knew that Weiss didn't want to be disturbed, so she left the young huntress to her thoughts. The ice queen started to unpack and gently put her clothes away. As she went through her dresses, she gasped when she came across a white, double-breasted jacket with black piping, cuffs and buttons clipped to a white, pleated full skirt with black lace trim. She then remembered wearing this outfit with a pair of white, thigh high boots with black heels and lace-topped black stockings.

 _The 'Snowpea' outfit. From when we were fighting Roman Torchwick and trying to figure out the connection between him and the White Fang. I can't believe three days ago was the last time I ever saw my all my friends together. The last time we all smiled. The last time Yang had both of her arms.  
_

The young Schnee wanted to cry, but she couldn't, as if someone had stolen her tears. She continued sorting her clothing until it was all in her closet. After putting away her last dress, the young girl yawned, suddenly feeling very tired. She took out her tiara and white hair bow, letting her hair tumble down to her waist. She undressed herself, stripping herself to her bra and underwear. She unclipped her bra and caught it in her hand before tossing it aside with her other clothes. Then she slipped into her faded blue nightgown with the Schnee crest on the upper right corner. She lifted the covers and put them down over herself. The young woman tried to sleep, but she didn't fall asleep easily.

 _Where did all of the light and joy in this world go? Where did the good times run off to?_

Weiss tossed and turned. Despite being physically and emotionally drained, her mind was active, keeping her awake. She turned on her left side, looking out the window. She saw the moon and its pieces floating in the sky, illuminating the sky, so she turned onto her other side. Eventually, she fell asleep, although she didn't remember how or when it happened. She also had a dreamless sleep that night.

The sun arose, signaling the beginning of a new day. Weiss got dressed and into her normal outfit then was about to start brushing her hair. She searched for her bag and found a white hairbrush with a circular design with silvery white bristles. As she got out her white hairbrush from her first duffel bag, she was reminded of the time Zwei picked up Weiss's hairbrush with his mouth and started running through the halls with it. Weiss's hair was loose and flew wildly as she and her teammates pursued the mutt.

"Come back here!" Weiss commanded. "That's my hairbrush, you silly mutt!"

"Zwei, you bad dog!" Ruby exclaimed.

"How did I get talked into this?" Blake mumbled to herself, still heard by her teammates.

"Zwei, come back here!" Yang exclaimed.

They eventually got the hairbrush. Weiss was really annoyed at the time, but looking back on it, it was one of her happier memories. She would go through chasing a dog to get her hairbrush back a hundred times if it meant reversing time and making the events that happened four days ago never happen. She took her hair and divided it into two sections, then moved one section to her right shoulder then her left. She slowly went through her hair, trying not to pull out too many strands. She felt at least three nasty knots in her hair, two on the right and one on the left.

 _Why is my hair such a mess?_ Then she remembered.. _Oh right. I haven't brushed my hair in several days. I also haven't spoken, but... How... how can I speak of the horrors that occurred?_

She tried to dismiss those thoughts. After close to an hour of hair brushing and pulling out more hairs than she wanted, her hair was finally tangle-free. She got her hair bow, tied her hair into a ponytail and donned her mini-tiara with it. She looked at herself in the mirror; she was the ice queen, and she looked beautiful. She tried to smile so she could see her reflection in a happier state of mind.

 _Well, that certainly took a while. But it helps to distract me. What else can I do to avoid thinking of the problem at hand?_

She put the brush down and went up the steps, grabbed a book on bookshelf, sat down in her white and silver throne-like chair and began to read. As she read _The Third Crusade,_ she tried to drown her sorrows or forget about her troubles. Sometimes reading helped. Other times it didn't. In a few rare cases, reading a book made her feel even worse, but after finishing the book she read all afternoon, she actually felt a little better.

For a while, she was able to forget about her sorrows. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few moments as Blanche brought her dinner, since she had forgotten about it.

"Your dinner, ma'm." she said, setting it on the table. Weiss's appetite was gone. "Weiss, are you okay?" The female servant looked at her, her eyes pleading her to say something. "Talk to me, please." Weiss Schnee turned away and said nothing. The servant sighed. Blanche shut the door as Weiss placed her back to the wall and slowly slid to the ground.

 _You don't understand. I can't speak of what happened. How can I tell anyone?  
_

* * *

Pyrrha Nikos sat down on the couch, trying to recover from her battle as she took her medicine. As much as she wanted to get a new weapon and retrieve the remains of Milo and Akouo, she had to rest and give herself time to recover. After swallowing the pill and drinking some water, she looked around the room; Ren and Nora sat a table, each holding a few cards in their hand, while Jaune Arc was in his quarters, writing a letter to his parents. The red-headed warrior put the glass down on the coaster and mused to herself.

 _The ability by that was used on me... To trick me into thinking Penny multiplied her swords tenfold._ _Was it an illusion? No wait. No one else saw how many swords she had. Or was it just stress?_ A moment of silence passed before she asked herself, _Have I lost my mind?_

She recalled what happened to Yang during the singles round. After her victory against Mercury, the young man approached her only for her to attack him in cold-blooded spite. Yet when the Atlas military personnel surrounded her, she had claimed that she saw Mercury attempt an attack on her.

 _If it was an illusion, everyone would have seen it and Yang wouldn't have been disqualified. Yang's attack on Mercury was passed as induced by stress by those who defended her, while everyone else claimed it was an act of malevolence. But if Yang 'saw' Mercury attack her when no one else did, and I 'saw' Penny with hundreds of swords when nobody else saw it, then..._

Pyrrha gasped quietly to herself.

 _No... it can't be..._

Jaune entered the room and grabbed an envelope, tape dispenser, pen and a stamp. He grabbed a pen and wrote the sending and recipient addresses in the right place before putting the stamp in the upper right corner. Folding the letter hotdog style twice, he placed it into the envelope and sealed it with a piece of tape. "Alright. Now to find a messenger who hopefully, won't charge a fortune to deliver a message."

"Yeah, good luck with that." Ren grimaced. "I hear the lower end of hiring messengers starts at 100 Lien per message."

"Oh great." he sarcastically groaned.

"Yeah. Not exactly good for a bunch of poor, close to broke former students."

"We're not all broke." Nora remarked.

"But we're not exactly rich like Weiss." Ren responded.

"Speaking of Weiss," Pyrrha began. "what happened to her?"

* * *

Five days since the Fall of Beacon. It was late afternoon, and time seemed to be moving slowly in the Schnee Family manor. As she finished emptying her second duffel bag, she found a picture of herself and her friends. It was a picture of them taken shortly after first became a team. The photo was taken in front of the large statue/fountain of a Huntsman and Huntress standing atop a rock, beneath a cowering Beowolf. Ruby was on the far left, smiling and holding up a peace sign with her right index and middle finger. Weiss smiled slightly, Blake smiled with her arms folded into each other, and Yang was on the right side, smirking and wearing a pair of sunglasses. Pyrrha held up one their scrolls.

"Alright, everyone get in there!" She adjusted the scroll's camera to fit them all in the lens. "Smile!"

She took some pictures, with and without flash, and did that four times, one for each their scrolls so that by the time she was done, they all got some really good photos.

"Thank you so much!" Ruby cheered.

"No sweat." Pyrrha smiled and laughed.

Weiss stared at the picture of her teammates.

 _Ruby... Blake... Yang... I miss you. I miss you guys so much. Words can't even begin to describe my loneliness._

Then her thoughts turned to girl she tried so hard to save and had no idea whether or not her efforts that drained almost all of her aura worked or not.

 _Pyrrha... I know you'll never hear this, but... If you're alive, send me a sign._

She sighed as her prayer went unheard. Nothing really happened that day, or the sixth day. Most of the sixth day, she slept, napped or daydreamed, trying to forget about her woes and what happened at Beacon Academy. The sixth day was slow and painful.

It had been seven days since the Fall of Beacon. Weiss had stood at the window, looking at the world, but never being able to touch it. A knock on her door was heard. She didn't answer. The door slightly creaked as it opened was heard as Klein Sieben entered the room, Weiss slowly turning to the butler as he entered her chambers. He slowly approached her and walked up the steps.

He asked, "Are you alright? Estelle tells me you won't speak to her." Weiss didn't turn away but she still remained silent. "Please. Weiss. Say something..."

"Klein..." Weiss said, speaking for the first time in several days. After staying silent, speaking felt strange to her. Suddenly, overwhelming grief came over her and she began to cry. "Everything has fallen apart." She dropped to her knees, burying her eyes into her fists. "Everything's gone wrong..."

Klein gently embraced her. "I know you may not wish to speak about what happened at Beacon, but I'm always here for you."

Weiss threw her arms around him. "Thank you... I'll tell you everything. Estelle too." She breathed in. "I promise."


	7. Remains of the Day

Author's Notes:

-Thanks to my readers. I honestly didn't expect this much popularity for this story. Now, I know some of you are wanting to see Jacques injured or killed, but calm down. I know he is despicable, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm still planning out Weiss's story arc and his ultimate fate.

-Since I can not put a third category for this story, I'll tell you right away; this third category I would add is angst. Angst has already been present (as seen in previous chapters), and now you're going to get more!

* * *

A week had passed since the Fall of Beacon. The sky was grey and the gloomy clouds blocked out the sun. Blake jumped across the rooftops while crouched, then stood up and looked at the Grimm Dragon on top of what was the Beacon CCT tower. She then jumped to the next rooftop. After doing this for a minute, she stopped sat down on the edge of one of the rooftops.

She realized that she was getting nowhere. She got out the poster of Roman Torchwick and ripped it into pieces before throwing it on the ground. She sighed.

 _Okay, let's review. Roman is nowhere to be found. I've been searching for that criminal for a nearly a week and haven't found a trace of him. I've searched nearly every inch of this city. Since he has not been arrested and thrown into the slammer, this means one of the following things have happened;_

 _One, he's disguised himself to hide from the authorities._

 _Two, he's fled the city with wherever the Vale White Fang branch ran off to._

 _Three, he died while fighting a hunter/huntress._

 _Four, he was killed/devoured by Grimm._

 _Just great... What now?_

She mentally reviewed who Roman's allies were. As Blake went through her memory, she recalled the night she and Sun snuck into a White Fang meeting. As Roman spoke to the new recruits, she remembered a girl with pink and brown hair and eyes wearing a white, brown and pink outfit standing on the left side of the stage, and later on, nearby the prototype of Atlesian Paladin-290 that Roman acquired. He referred to her as 'Neo' in the match that ensued. Neo... She had that look of Neapolitan ice cream about her, in both her outfit and her physical traits.

 _Maybe Neo is short for Neopolitan._ Blake thought to herself.

She had no idea where Neo was, or even if she was alive, but if she wanted answers, she didn't have much choice. With no other options left, the cat choose to pursue the destructive sociopath.

* * *

Meanwhile in the city, Pyrrha and Jaune were traveling the streets, hoping to find Edom's Electronics Repair, a shop that repaired all sorts of electronics from scrolls to televisions and computers. Pyrrha was no longer wearing the circlet or any of her jewelry. She still had some bruises and visible damage, but it would fade away within time.

"You really think this place is still open?" Jaune asked.

"I hope that's the case, otherwise we'll have to travel out of the city." Pyrrha stated. "Which is undesirable."

"As if outside the city isn't any more dangerous than where we are now."

"Most of the Grimm are centered around Beacon Academy, and the electronics shop is far away from our former school." Pyrrha added. "Also, trying to..."

She lost her train of thought when her eyes laid upon the sight of another team on the opposite side of the crosswalk. They saw the leader of team NDGO Nebula Violette with her teammates Dew Gayl, Gwen Darcy and Octavia Ember. Dew and Octavia glared at Pyrrha. As the team crossed the sidewalk and stopped in the middle of the road, Octavia folded her arms with her fiery kris in her hand.

"Why are you even still here?" Dew interrogated Pyrrha. "Shouldn't you be in jail for what you did?"

Gwen and Nebula frowned at their teammate as Dew finished her questioning. Jaune glared at the blonde-haired huntress. "What are you talking about?"

"Were you not there when that murderer ripped Penny Polendina apart?!" Octavia shouted in anger. "She should be in jail and perhaps even executed!"

"You can't even control your Semblance!" Dew scolded. "You incompetent klutz!"

"You murderer!"

Pyrrha covered her ears, trying to drown out their shouting. "Stop it! I didn't mean to hurt anyone!" She groaned. "How was I supposed to know that Penny was a robot?"

"You liar!" Octavia screamed. "Even if Penny doesn't count as a person, she should still be arrested for destruction!"

"That's two reasons you should be in jail!" Dew exclaimed.

Using the fire dust, Octavia unleashed a fiery shockwave from her kris, knocking down Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune looked at his partner before turning to the girls. "Leave her alone! How was anyone supposed to know Penny was a robot?" He pointed to the respective person for emphasis and raised his arms at the end of his rant. "She didn't know, you didn't know, I didn't know, nobody knew!" He let his arms fall and got out his sword as Pyrrha got up from the ground. "So leave her alone or I'll fight you. Both of you!"

Pyrrha gasped, putting her right hand to her mouth. "Jaune... Are you crazy? You'll get hurt! I can't let you do this..."

"I can, and I will. Also, since your weapons are gone, what other choice do we have?"

Octavia smirked. "You're toast!"

"Bring it." Dew said, taunting him with a motion of her right hand.

Jaune charged at her, before Nebula stopped him by placing her right hand, glowing with a royal purple aura, to his chest and pushing him back a few steps. She smiled at him. "Young man, you are bold and courageous for defending your friend, but a duel is not necessary. You need not fight each other." She placed her left hand to her chest. "Also, since I'm their leader, it is _my_ job to scold them." She folded her arms and looked scornfully at her teammates.

"Uh oh..." Dew mumbled under her breath.

Dew and Octavia tried to back away, only to bump into Gwen who glared at her teammates, arms crossed. "Don't even think about it."

"And Octavia and Dew, do you find such malice necessary?" Nebula asked, continuing to glare at them with anger.

"We're not being mean, we're being truthful!" Dew protested.

"There's a difference being truthful and being harsh." Nebula glared at Octavia. "And you, Octavia! I thought I made it clear for you to be better at keeping your temper in check when not on the battlefield!" She looked at Dew and Octavia, who were ashamed of themselves. "Both of you are being overly harsh on her. Also, you don't know what it was like being in her shoes, so don't be so quick to judge. She may have been cracking under all the pressure placed on her shoulders."

"Something that I perhaps, never mentioned to say..." Pyrrha began. "When I stumbled backwards in fear, I saw Penny's swords suddenly multiply themselves by the dozens, then hundreds, a thousand blades being aimed at me. My brain was failing to think this through, I had to do something to stop the blades from slicing me into pieces."

"So you're delusional?" Dew asked.

"I don't know if it was stress, or someone's interference or what, but that's what I saw." She looked down. "Or what I thought I saw."

"Earlier we all thought we saw Yang attack Mercury who was simply walking up to her, but she thought she was being attacked by him..." Jaune noted. "Could there have been someone or something messing with their senses?"

Gwen responded, "But if that was the case, wouldn't someone have noticed and/or stopped the source of the illusions?"

"I don't have answers to either of these questions. Either way, apologize to her." Nebula ordered her other teammates.

"I'm sorry, Pyrrha." Dew said. "Honestly speaking, if I had been in your shoes and that same vision occurred, I probably would have countered the attack by creating a large twister that would end up having the same tragic result."

"My apologizes, Ms. Nikos." Octavia said, bowing forward with her hands together. "I can't say what would have happened if I had been in your shoes in that moment, but perhaps I was a bit too quick to judge. With what happened... what am I supposed to think and feel? As well as everyone else?"

"It's alright. I... I didn't even know what to think at the time."

"Come girls, we need to move." Nebula instructed. "The flight for Shade Academy will be arriving in less than two hours." Team NDGO walked on. Nebula briefly stopped, turning to Pyrrha and Jaune. "Good luck to you both."

"We should get going." Pyrrha said.

As they walked forth to their destination, Jaune smiled briefly. Behind him, Pyrrha looked the other way, concealing the sorrow that Jaune didn't see on her face.

 _What if Dew and Octavia were right?_

* * *

They had reached their destination. Unlike many of the surrounding buildings, Edom's Electronics Repair was visibly undamaged. The lights were off, the building seemed to be empty, and the paper sign read in big red letters, _Closed._

"Aw man, looks like they're closed." Jaune groaned.

"Maybe we can try elsewhere." Pyrrha said, trying to be optimistic.

A guy with red hair saw them, came forward and flipped the sign to say open, turned on the lights and unlocked the door. "I wasn't expecting any business today." He motioned them to enter. "Come on in."

The two warriors entered the shop. The room was circular fitted with black carpeting. The walls were painted red, maroon actually with two television screens spaced far apart from each other on both sides of the room. In the center of the room was a big circular desk made of wood. To the left and right side of the room was an open door frame that led to other rooms down a hallway. The man went behind the desk.

The red-haired man appeared to be in his mid-30's. His red hair was unkempt like he just got out of bed. He had choppy long bangs brushed to the side, tucked behind his ears. He had white skin and had brown eyes that silently screamed out sadness. He wore a crimson turtleneck covering his muscles with a black belt hanging around his waist like a hoop paired with black cargo pants and black dress shoes.

"I was just about to close up shop, so I'm really the only one here at the moment. Ever since the chaos that happened a week ago, business has been painfully slow. I've been forced to let go of some of my employees, which I hate having to do. My name is Edom, the owner of this little shop, and I'll be taking care of you today." He smiled. "So, enough about me. How can I help?

Jaune retrieved his broken scroll from his front pocket. "I need this scroll fixed."

"That'll be no problem. Just sit tight and I'll have it fixed in no time."

He took the scroll and went down one of the doors to a repairing room. Jaune and Pyrrha took a seat on a ladybug colored sofa.

"I can't believe our luck." Jaune said. "I thought this place would be closed."

After a moment of silence, Pyrrha asked. "So what are we going to do?"

Jaune looked at his girlfriend, baffled. "About what?"

"About this current situation we're in. Beacon Academy is in tatters, and as much it pains me to say it, we can't stay here forever."

"Well..." He hesitated.

He didn't think about that. But what if she was right?

 _I don't want to leave her... I don't want her to leave me..._

"So," he began, trying to change the topic, "what are we going to do about getting you new weapons?"

"The remains of Milo and Akouo are back at Beacon tower, but going in there unarmed with the current situation is the equivalent of a death wish." She frowned. "Also, as far as I can see, there's no weapon or weapon repair shop that remains here in the chaos."

A moment of silence passed between them. Then Jaune came up with an idea. A crazy idea that might not even work, or that Pyrrha could have qualms about. "There might be one place to find a weapon, assuming the arena hasn't been cleaned up from the Battle from Beacon." He paused. "The swords of Penny Polendina."

Pyrrha blinked. "Penny's swords? In the Amity Colosseum?" Jaune nodded. She put her thumb and index finger to her chin and mused to herself. "It seems like a long shot, although it's better than nothing. But how are we going to get there? I doubt air buses are taking students there anymore."

"We'll figure something out."

Pyrrha thought to herself. _What will become of Amity Colosseum? Will it stay here, or will the kingdoms fight over it? Will the next Vytal Festival Tournament happen here to make up for the incomplete festival?_

She paused to herself and more sorrowful thoughts entered her mind.

 _Will there ever be another Vytal Festival ever again? Or will this feeling of doom and gloom, mistrust and hate, last forevermore?_

Just then, Edom came back with Jaune's repaired scroll. The two arose from the sofa and went to the desk.

Jaune got out his wallet. "So how much is this costing me?"

Edom thought to himself for a brief moment. "Hmm... Normally, I'd charge the regular piece, but since I'm feeling nice, I'll give you a discount; 40 Lien."

Jaune put the money on the counter. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. And thanks for your business. Good luck to you two."

The two left the shop and tried to find the nearest air bus.

* * *

"Come on, please!"

"I said, 'No!'"

The air bus driver glared at Pyrrha. The two members of JNPR stood there on the bus, trying to reason with the grumpy old man.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Cause you're a murderer! And taking the swords of your opponent, if they're even still there, only proves that you're the monster everyone thinks you are!"

"Come on, the girl's weaponless and all the shops have been destroyed or closed." Jaune argued.

"Also, I didn't mean to hurt her in any way!" Pyrrha retorted. "I had no idea Penny was an android!"

"She's an assassin! She should be in jail! I won't do it!"

"She didn't know, you didn't know, I didn't know, nobody knew! So shut your mouth and take us up there!"

The old man groaned. "Alright, I'll help. But I'm charging you guys for my time. You'll pay before we leave the arena on the way back."

The two sat down in the sea green seats, not saying a word to each other as the airbus ascended into the sky. Pyrrha looked at the window, seeing the sky with less clouds yet still remaining grey. She could see the city below, the ruins of many buildings, the gloominess lurking in the city, and the Grimm Dragon frozen atop the Beacon CCT tower.

 _It seems like the Grimm will stay at the top of that tower forever... I wonder just how long that Grimm dragon will stay frozen on top of that tower. What if it doesn't stay like that? What if that freezing spell or effect wears off?_

The thought of the Grimm dragon unfreezing was a scary thought, so she tried to shove it out of her mind. After a few minutes of silence, the bus landed on the loading dock, extending a ramp to get off the plane.

"Here you are. I don't expect you to find anything, but good luck anyway."

The two got off the airbus and left for the stadium. They walked through the entrance and went down the stairs to the arena entrance. Once they entered the arena, they saw how deserted it was, and how there were holes in the default biome areas.

"Hey, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked out of the blue.

"Yes, Jaune?" Pyrrha responded.

"Do you think it's possible that when Cinder infiltrated the CCT like you told me about, that she may have manipulated the random match-up to match her desire?"

"That... might actually be possible. She's probably the one who made the speech. Unfortunately, we can't prove anything." she answered as they entered the arena.

The viewing arena was completely deserted. The red-haired warrior remembered the Griffon had blown Penny's remains to the side, so she searched behind the octagonal arena on the ground. She found what she was looking for, but she found something else. Pyrrha couldn't help but bring tears to her eyes. Guilt and sorrow overcame her. She saw the remains of Penny's metal body, all in pieces next to the ten swords nearby her.

"I... I know it's important for me to have a weapon in my hands, but I'm not sure I can do this."

"It's not your fault, Pyrrha. How many times do we have to tell you to reassure you?"

"Then why do I still feel this crushing feeling of regret and sorrow?"

Jaune was crestfallen. "I.. I can not answer that. But if it helps you feel any better, you could apologize to her..."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea." Pyrrha Nikos approached the robot that was known as Penny. She knelt down on one knee and touched her face. It was cold, even colder than the corpse of a human. "Penny Polendina..." Pyrrha began as she held her hand to her cheek. "I know you can't hear me, but I've come to apologize for what I've done. I swear I never meant to hurt you. I don't know what happened back there. I don't know if I was succumbing to stress or if someone was casting an illusion on my eyes, but I thought I was defending myself from an onslaught of over a thousand swords. In reality, there weren't that many blades present. As a result of this, I... I ended up tearing you apart into pieces. I feel crushed and torn apart inside like you were. Words are not enough to describe this horrible, soul-crushing guilt I feel inside. I'm sorry."

"I'm truly sorry for what has happened. I believe that someone has manipulated the match, and perhaps even the Vytal Festival as a whole, to create all this chaos. My weapons are gone, so if you don't object, I wish to make them mine. I swear that I will never use them against the innocent, and I promise that if I find the ones responsible for this, I will take them down."

She didn't feel anything else negative when she picked up the first sword, so she grabbed the others and carried them in her arms. Ms. Nikos felt a little bit less guilty, but it would take more than an unheard apology to help reassure herself.

"That was well spoken." Jaune said. "Who knows? Maybe somewhere from afar, Penny is watching this and smiling down on you."

Pyrrha briefly smiled, but it faded after a few seconds. Then she felt a cold rush of energy rush down her back and her eyes went wide. "Freeze!" a voice shouted. "Hold it right there!"

Pyrrha gasped and dropped the swords. Her and Jaune turned around to see James Ironwood, standing there with his arms folded and a scowl on his face.

"General Ironwood." Pyrrha spoke.

"What are you...?" Jaune began.

"I came here to see if there were any survivors hiding from the chaos up here." Ironwood answered. "But you don't look like you've been hiding here all this time."

"No, Mr. Ironwood, we haven't." Pyrrha responded.

He looked at her skeptically. "You wish to use Penny's weapons as your own?"

"Yes. At least until I can find the remains of Milo and Akouo."

"We're going back to the tower?" Jaune asked. "Do we have a death wish?"

"We don't have much choice."

"Are you sure you should go back there? The area is infested with Grimm." Ironwood warned them.

Pyrrha nodded grimly. "I am aware of this."

"Also, how are you going to carry all those swords without taxing your aura?"

"No problem!" She activated her semblence to make the swords levitate by their metal strings, then she tied those strings together until all the swords were in one threaded circle. She lifted her arms up and the circle of sword was fitted around her hips, almost like she was wearing a skirt. Once she had tightened the strings to properly fit, she lifted her arms down and her hands stopped glowing. "Viola!"

"Hmm... Certainly creative." Ironwood admitted.

"Come on, Jaune." She mentioned to him. "We should get going."

"Alright, but before we go, I'd like to ask the general a question." Jaune answered.

The man looked at Mr. Arc curiously. "Hmm. What is it?"

"Well, that speaker that questioning Atlas having a soldier disguised as a little girl... Why did you disguise her as a girl, or what was her purpose meant to be?"

He sighed. "It's a long, complicated story, but to give you the short unclassified version; Penny was supposed to be a hero, the world's savior. She was meant to participate in the Vytal Festival to test her skills in combat. If she didn't meet our expectations, she was going to be trained privately by the best huntsmen and huntresses in Atlas. If she did well enough, she would have be enrolled in a huntsmen training school, most likely Atlas Academy, although according to what I was told by one of her teammates, she expressed a desire to stay at Beacon. Eventually, after graduating from the Huntsman Academy, her identity as a robot was to be revealed to the world and she would go on high-risk missions that no other android or human could do."

Pyrrha sulked. "I really do feel awful about this. Despite reassurance from my teammates, I still feel like this is all my fault."

"Don't. It's not your fault, and I know that because over the last few days, I have discovered a shocking revelation; someone hacked into the CCT before the Vytal Festival started. They hacked the slots to choose the matches, but there's no way of knowing who did this."

"Cinder..." Pyrrha stated, scowling, gritting her teeth as her hands formed fists. "It had to be her. On the top of tower, when she descended down after taming the Griffon, Ruby called her out for hacking into the CCT, to which she admitted her guilt. Then she drew her bow and was about to fire an arrow at her. Without even thinking, I jumped in the way, intercepting the blow. Even though it scared Jaune half to death, it was ultimately the righteous decision to do. Ruby would have been _killed_ if I just stood there and did nothing."

Ironwood gave her another skeptical glare. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because Ruby is approximately this high." Pyrrha said, using her right hand to demonstrate, stopping a few centimeters after reaching her mouth. She recalled the flashback from her view. After Ruby had broke the arrow pinning Pyrrha down by her boot, Cinder had landed on the ground.

Ruby gasped. "Wait a second. You were the one I saw that night! The masked woman who infiltrated The Cross Continental Transmit System in Beacon!" She angrily stepped forward, leaving Pyrrha a few feet behind her. "Cinder, how could you?!"

She laughed. "You may be right, little girl." Cinder put an arrow on the bow and drew back the string. "But what could you possibly do to stop me?"

Pyrrha quietly gasped. Time seemed to slow down as Pyrrha recalled this moment. She began to run forward. Cinder released the arrow only a second later. "No!" She jumped up as the arrow was only inches away from her neck, causing it to be embedded in her gut. Ruby gasped in horror and sadness as Pyrrha fell to the ground.

She stopped the flashback in her mind as a visual came up. "Had that arrow not been intercepted, it would have gone right through her neck, which would cause her to suffocate and die from lack of oxygen."

In the present Ironwood nodded in comprehension of her statement. "I see. The problem with this revelation of hacking is that we don't know which matches were really random and which were chosen by her."

"She had to have manipulated Pyrrha vs Penny, and probably Yang vs Mercury as well." Jaune suggested.

"Come on, Jaune." Pyrrha mentioned. "We have an angry air bus driver to pay."

"Be careful, young hunters." Ironwood said.

They only had to pay five Lien each and they were transported back to the fairgrounds, which were mostly destroyed after the Fall of Beacon. There were ashes, ripped tents, collapsed tents, wooden planks and ruins as far as the eye could see.

Jaune turned to Pyrrha, feeling somber. "Is this all that remains of the day?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Come on, we have weapon remains to find."

And so they went forth back to where it all began.


	8. One Jump Ahead

Emerald and Mercury had just arrived at the perimeter of Beacon Academy's campus. They saw barricades of brick walls, piles of bags stacked on top of each other and trench holes right behind them. This pattern of barricades extended from the bridge to the path to Beacon's courtyard all the way to the brick wall with an iron gate. They examined the scene. There was nobody on Beacon Academy's campus grounds save for a few guards. Further back on the the side of the wall were huntsmen and huntresses, standing by in case the Grimm should try to attack the city again. Past the last gate-late structure was the courtyard, where most of the Grimm were. Several buildings and stone structures were in ruins and were partially or completely destroyed.

Mercury noted the two guards standing at the entrance. "How do we get in?"

Emerald pointed to her forehead. "Simple."

The two guards stood there, bored out of their minds. Suddenly one of them noticed two black-hooded figures approaching the gate.

"You shouldn't be here. You need to leave!" the first one exclaimed.

The hooded hallucinations laughed at them, and appeared to be taking their scrolls.

"What the?!" the first one asked.

They both checked their pockets and their scrolls were gone.

"After them!" the second one commanded.

The guards chased after the hooded figures, leaving the entrance unguarded. Emerald put the stolen scrolls away as Mercury smirked. "Nice one."

"They won't be distracted for long. Let's go!" Emerald commanded.

So they went past the gate and traveled further into the deserted, destroyed academy. By this point, there were no longer any huntsman or human workers, only Grimm creatures as far as the eye could see.

Mercury sulked. "Now for the more difficult part; trespassing without being attacked by Grimm. How in the world are we going to get through without being noticed by them?"

"Think of happy thoughts." Emerald told him.

Mercury grimaced. "You're talking to someone with a very troubled past."

She frowned. "Come on. You have to have some happy memories." The young thief attempted to smile before waving in exasperation at him. "Don't you recall our victory during the team match in the Vytal Festival? How we crushed our opponents?" As Mercury responded with a slight, "Hmm..", Emerald grabbed his wrist and guided him through the pavilion.

As the two went through the courtyard, they recalled their first victory in the Vytal Festival. The match ended up occurring in the early morning, before team RWBY, JNPR or many of Beacon's other teams fought in the tournament.

"Two Haven teams defeated in a row. I think it's safe to say that Haven's school is not doing well very morning, but it's too early to tell. Perhaps that will change with this next fight." Professor Oobleck commented.

"We have team CMSN (Crimson) of Haven going up against team CRME (Cream) of Atlas." Professor Port said, introducing the two teams. "The members of team CRME, save for Claire Blanche, competed in the tournament two years ago and suffered defeat in the first round. With a new leader by their side, will these third year students be able to redeem themselves? Let's find out."

Cinder and Neo (in her disguise) smirked as they entered the arena. Mercury looked bored, and Emerald was displeased, folding her arms. Some of the members of the opposing team, namely the second and third guys were nervous. Claire smirked and the first guy stood there with a neutral look on his face.

Team CRME consisted of three guys and one girl. The first member, Claire Blanche, was a girl with very pale skin, blond hair with white streaks in a braid and light brown eyes. She wore a knee length cream-colored dress, white elbow-length dress gloves with white heels. On her right wrist was a silver bracelet with blue gems while the left wrist donned a gold bracelet with red gems. She wore a silver tiara with white gems. She looked rather young for an Atlas student, like younger than or the same age as Ruby. How old was she?

 _There's no way she's a third-year student._ Emerald thought.

 _She's very young for a leader, and a student in general._ Mercury mused silently.

Claire's weapon was a multi action dust rapier similar to Myrtenaster, only visible differences were that while Weiss's sword was white, this girl's sword was snow blue. The sword was also slightly smaller by three inches.

The second member, standing next to the leader, was a tall, muscular guy, who kinda looked like a lumberjack standing at 6"4. The tall guy had messy blond hair, pale skin and green eyes. He wore chest armor over a black t-shirt exposing his muscles with a white rook and black cargo pants with dark grey combat boots. He possessed these green hand-guns that had various settings on them and could be equipped with dust.

The third member was an average looking guy with arms weaker than limp noodles, brown hair, slightly tanned skin and grey eyes. He wore jeans, a red jersey with a black pawn chess piece and grey sneakers. Unlike his other team members, who had more modernized weapons, he wielded the ever-classic sword and shield.

The last was a guy with light brown skin and hair, with blue eyes to compliment the look. He wore a black outfit with black combat boots and dark grey chest armor. He carried a heavy grey battle axe with small slots on the handle to insert dust.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" the third (and last) guy asked.

"Nonsense! We will fight and we will win!" the leader declared. "I've put you men through the toughest training along with our three years of training in Atlas. Besides, these are first year students and that grey-haired guy doesn't even have a weapon! This will be easy!"

CMSN stood on the right while CRME stood on the left side of the arena. The holographic roulette begun spinning for the right side of the arena. It stopped on a grey image with a rectangular building showed up. The platform rose up, revealing an urban city that appeared to have suffered damage, likely from an earthquake. Stone and broken glass was found throughout the city.

"Hmm... This is will be interesting..." Cinder spoke.

The holographic roulette started once again, this time for the other side. It landed on a light blue slide with a snowflake. The other side of the arena rose up as an arena an slippery ice and ice shards rose up.

"Three... two... one! Begin!" Professor Port exclaimed.

The fight began with Emerald running forth and firing her shotguns with laser beams at the enemy team. The second and third guys ran in two different sections to avoid her gunfire. The third guy was surprisingly fast and was able to outrun Emerald's attacks. While Claire and the first and thirds guys retreated, the second guy faced Neo in hand to hand combat, but her punches were quicker. She punched him in the face, then the right shoulder, then the gut, then his left knee, and finally kicked him in the face, knocking him off the center and onto the ice, and then Mercury kicked him out of the arena.

"And team CMSN swiftly gains the advantage." Oobleck announced.

The third guy fought against Mercury, who swiftly fired explosive projectiles from his boots at him while the last guy tried to shove Cinder into a corner. He swung his axe at her, only for her to block it with her swords in an X-formation. She pushed against him, trying to shove him back, but his axe was sharper, breaking her swords into pieces. She cartwheeled backwards as he swung his axe at her again, then did so again when he threw it at her. Cinder then reached the destroyed apartment complex. She picked up a piece of rubble and tossed it aside, revealing a lot of broken glass. She knelt down and summoned the shards of glass from her sword to her side, pretending to look vulnerable as she 'desperately' tried to forge the old glass with the new glass, forming a weapon.

"Oh, what have we here? Looks like Cinder Fall has the ability of Vidrokinesis." Port commented.

"Yes, this quite uncommon Semblance allows the user to manipulate, create and destroy glass. She can use it to fire it directly at her opponent, reform the weapons her opponent just broke or even transform them into something entirely new." Oobleck commented.

"What?" As she finished forming a bow with the glass from her swords and the glass from the stage, she put out her quiver of arrows and started to fire said arrows at him. "Oh come on!"

Sprinting for his life, he dodged multiple arrows fired at him, only to have them be pinned into his left boot. Then Cinder run forward, stepped on his left foot and punched the guy in the gut, knocking him through the air and knocking off the boot that was pinned down.

"Oof! That had to hurt!"

As he got up, the crowd started to gasp. The crowd was in shock. He looked down saw his revealed horse hoof, exposed for all the world to see. He put his hands to his beet red face in embarrassment.

"Well, that was... unexpected..." Port awkwardly stated.

Emerald blinked. "He's a Faunus."

"A horse Faunus." Mercury added.

"Most unusual indeed." Cinder began. "But it matters not. Take him down!"

Claire was in shock, while the other teammates said nothing. They knew the truth, but she had not. She looked sad and betrayed. "Ebony? Why didn't you tell me? You could have just told me."

"I..." he began.

Emerald once again fired at him, and he swiftly cartwheeled to evade her attack. Trying to hold on to his dignity, he retrieved his boot and put it back on. He then charged towards Cinder. Emerald fired her gunshots at the leader as Mercury fired his projectiles from his boots at Claire as Cinder kicked Ebony down. Neo, who was right next to him, shifted her eyes from green to light pink and brown, much to his confusion.

"Hmm... hmm..."

Then she stomped him in the face, knocking down his aura to zero. Her eyes shifted back to green.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt!" Oobleck commented. "In other news, this is looking bad for that poor little girl! It's one vs four! Hardly a fair fight!"

The young girl didn't appear to be afraid. As every member of CMSN approached her, she didn't step back. "I will not be defeated!"

"I hate to break it to you, little girl, but your time is up!" Mercury exclaimed, smirking as he kicked her down.

She then cartwheeled backwards as Emerald fired her guns at her. She avoided most of their blasts, but she was hit in the gut by the last one fired. Neo used her umbrella (which was camouflaged as a black sword) to wound Claire by striking her in the arm as she flew through air before crashing on the ground. As she began to bleed, she glared at her opponent and screamed in anger and agony. She fired a wave of fire at Emerald through her sword, which hurt her, but wasn't enough to knock her out. Then Claire gasped as her eyes widened in shock and terror. Cinder summoned more glass shards to her side as Claire summoned her aura to protect her in a snow blue circular disk force-field.

Cinder fired the glass shards against the leader, and try as she might, Claire couldn't protect herself. She was knocked off the ground and out of the arena, glass flying everywhere as she was eliminated by both ring out and her aura being completely depleted.

"And with that, team CMSN wins and moves onto the doubles round!" Port announced. The crowd cheered for them. Neo smirked and giggled in a childish, yet sinister manner. Claire, still in pain, screamed in agony. A piece of glass was accidentally shoved into her arm from the force of Cinder's attack and could easily be seen on the camera. The crowd gasped in terror. Someone even screamed.

"Claire!" all three of the guys on CRME shouted at once. They all ran to her side as she lied there in pain.

"Oh dear, somebody's hurt! Someone go make sure she's okay!" Oobleck commanded.

Ebony glared at Cinder. "You're a monster!"

Emerald was really worried, and Cinder smiled. "Oh, you're just jealous because of the power I possess. And you want to know something else? I was holding back. I could have done much, much worse."

He raised his fist, but the second guy grabbed his shoulder and nodded right to left. The medics swiftly came and put the leader of team CRME onto a stretcher.

"I swear, she did not mean to...!" Emerald began.

"Don't worry, you guys are still in." one of them said. "Accidents like this happen more often than one would think. She'll be fine." She groaned. "Well, hopefully."

She breathed a sigh of relief. The medics dragged Claire away, her teammates in tow and Cinder simply just smirked. "Well done, girls and boy. Pretty soon, this plan will be fulfilled."

As the flashback ended, Mercury and Emerald had made it to the entrance of Beacon and walked into the doors of the deserted academy.

"Perfect." Mercury smirked. "From here, we're home free."

* * *

Pyrrha and Jaune were climbing down the stairs to the bottom of what was once Beacon Academy. She looked around as they stopped to catch their breath.

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Pyrrha asked her partner.

"Avoiding the Grimm was harder than sneaking in." Jaune remarked. "We were lucky finding that unguarded entrance."

"Now we just have to get the remains of the shield you br..."

Pyrrha's thoughts were interrupted as she heard another voice speak, "...We're home free."

"You so sure about that?" a feminine voice asked him.

The two peaked their heads slightly from behind the arch of the wall hiding them, seeing Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black roaming the halls of Beacon Academy. "I'm sure." The two continued speaking to each other as Pyrrha and Jaune watched on, really confused. "We just need to focus on our objective."

"Emerald and Mercury? What are they doing here?" Jaune whispered.

"I don't know. Let's follow them and find out." Pyrrha responded quietly.

The two stealthy followed them. Well sort of... Jaune was fine at sneaking around, but the swords around Pyrrha's waist clinked against each other and Pyrrha's belt, making a noticeable sound. She got scared and quickly hid behind a pillar while Jaune ran and hid behind a wall accessed from an open doorway.

Mercury turned around, followed by Emerald. "Did you hear something?" he asked.

"No. Maybe it's just more structure crumbling and falling apart." Emerald suggested. She shuttered. "Ugh... That's an unnerving thought."

They moved forward, Mercury motioned for his partner in crime to come along. "Come on, we better move before someone finds us."

She frowned and folded her arms. "Who would find us here?"

Jaune looked at Pyrrha with an annoyed glare. "Move quieter!" he whispered.

"I'm trying!" she quietly retorted.

As the villainous duo moved forward, the warriors waited a minute or two before deciding to resume. Pyrrha used her hand to hold up the swords with her Semblance, preventing them from clashing against each other. They moved forward as quickly and quietly as they could, trying hard not to lose them or let the swords fall down.

"Remind me, since we can't go to what remains of Ozpin's office, where is the nearest computer lab?" Emerald asked.

The two reached an elevator. Mercury pressed a button on the left side. "Third floor for this building." he answered. "Hopefully this elevator still works..." Using her right hand, Pyrrha willed the elevator doors not to open. He pressed the button again. The doors would not budge. "Well great." He sighed. "Looks like we have to take the stairs."

Emerald looked around, leery of something. Reluctantly, she shrugged it off. The two continued following the villains silently up the stairs. Eventually they arrived at a computer lab on the third floor. Emerald sat down at the desk and turned on a computer. "Hopefully, this will work..." Much to the surprise of Jaune, Pyrrha and Emerald, it turned on and booted up within seconds. "I'm surprised there's still power here."

Jaune and Pyrrha hid most of their bodies behind a floor bookcase, peeking up to spy on the duo. "Let's not question it." Then he remembered. "Oh yeah, the computers in this lab run on a separate energy source. Most students aren't aware that the computers here can last for 24 hours without power."

Emerald smiled. "Nice." She chuckled. "But this will be quick." When she logged into the system and pulled up the page displaying Beacon Academy's website, she smirked. "Alright, now we just find the right page." She clicked on something, leading her to another page and groaned. "Of course, there's a username and password required."

"Or insert scroll to confirm identity." The murderer's son sighed. "No way to guess the username and password. With the CCT down, Watts can't help us hack into the Beacon Academy files."

The thief slumped in her seat. "For once I wish he was here with us."

Mercury mused to himself for a few seconds. "Maybe there's something else we can do. Try the scrolls you stole."

Emerald dug the stolen scrolls out of her pocket and placed them on the table before picking them up and holding one in each hand. She looked left and right as she examined the scrolls in her hand. "Looks like their names are Brick Bond and... Charles Mustard? Who ends up with a last name of Mustard?"

Mercury shrugged. "Let's try the first one."

She placed the left scroll on the circular scanner in hopes of getting in. The scanner below flashed a red X, and beeped at them. She sighed. "Nothing."

"Maybe Mr. Mustard can help?"

She took his advice and the scanner flashed a green check mark. "Alright, we're in!" Once the page finished loading, it took them to a homepage for faculty where she then typed some words on the keyboard into the search bar. "Now we search Ruby Rose." She typed the words into the search bar and it soon loaded the results. It had at least five different results with Ruby or Rose in their name, but she clicked on the second one, loading the profile and personal information of the Ruby Rose team JNPR knew and befriended. "Perfect."

"Well, this isn't good." Pyrrha mumbled softly.

Jaune whispered, "Why are they doing this? What could Ruby have that they want?"

"I don't know."

Mercury looked around but saw no one, as Jaune and Pyrrha got on their knees to avoid being seen. "Did you hear those voices?" Mercury asked. "I think someone might be following us."

"Are we both going mad?"

Pyrrha, still on her knees whispered urgently, "We have to stop them."

"But how?" Jaune asked under his breath.

"I got an idea."

"Should we download or print the information?" Emerald asked her partner in crime.

"Well the Mistress of Darkness doesn't really care how we get the intel to her. Let's do both just in case." he answered.

Emerald clicked the mouse a few times, set the scroll on the scanner again and then got out a card from her wallet. As she finished retrieving the card, one of Penny's swords come flying towards the direction of her and the computer. Mercury then swiftly kicked it down, but then it glowed with a black outline and tripped Mercury before floating away.

"Ok, someone or something is here. No doubt about it."

Emerald started to make her way to the nearest printer. "Go check it out while I finish the download and printing job."

"The jig is up, Mercury and Emerald!" She came out from her hiding place by standing up and walking away from the bookcase, revealing the possession of Penny's swords to the villainous duo, much to their surprise. Jaune then followed her lead. She held the sword she used earlier in her right hand. "Stand down and no one gets hurt."

"Well, well, what have we here?" She spoke as swiped her card and choose to print out the file. "The murderess and the lost leader." Within seconds, the files of Ruby Rose were made in a physical form of two pages of paper. She picked up the papers, took out a blue folder and stored them inside.

"Shut up! It's not true!"

Emerald laughed at her face and smirked. "Is it a false truth, or is it a lie you tell yourself?" Pyrrha sulked, looking at the ground. Emerald picked up the stolen scrolls and shoved the folder into Mercury's hands.

"What are you up to? What did Ruby ever do to you?!" Jaune retaliated in anger.

"It's not what she did to us." Emerald answered. "It's what she did to Cinder." Both warriors looked at them with a collective 'Huh?' and Emerald shot them down. "We got the information we need, let's beat it!"

The two ran off as the warriors got up from the ground.

"After them!" Pyrrha ordered.

And so, the chase began. The villains ran from the computer lab and into the hall, the sound of Penny's swords clinking loudly as Pyrrha ran after them with Jaune by her side.

"Faster!" Mercury exclaimed.

The two increased their pace.

"We have... to slow... them down!" Jaune exclaimed between breaths.

Pyrrha activated her Semblance to take one of the swords from her belt and broke a flowerpot on a table in an attempt to trip them, but they simply jumped over it.

"We gotta lose em!"

Emerald pointed to her forehead with her index finger. "I got an idea."

Pyrrha and Jaune were now hot on their heels. As they went down the hallway, Emerald let her hand down and clinched her fists she and Mercury continued to run.

"This way!" Mercury exclaimed.

The four ran up several flights of stairs and chased up them up a spiral staircase.

"They're gaining on us!" Emerald exclaimed.

"No kidding!"

"Why are we even going upstairs anyway?"

The two went up several flights of stairs, the sound of clinking swords, heels and boots against the stone steps, heavy breathing echoing as they ascended upstairs. Pyrrha's eyes narrowed as they were focused on her targets. This continued until they reached the fifth floor and Mercury kicked down the door before they ran down a hallway of dorm rooms. This was actually the floor where transfer students participating in the Vytal Festival Tournament. They passed by what was their dorm room, and then team SSSN's old dorm as they swiftly dodged a pile of broken glass and stone.

Jaune was worried they would escape. "They're getting away!"

"Not for long!" Pyrrha exclaimed.

She activated her Semblance again to try and throw the swords at them, but they all missed. Pyrrha picked them up with her Polarity and then continued to pursue them with the blades levitating after them. Eventually the two criminals entered another stairway, this time made of metal. Pyrrha put her swords around her waist and then used her power to make some of the stairs break off and fall to the ground below. As they reached the top of broken staircase, the criminals stopped dead in their tracks.

As Emerald stopped, her blood turned to ice. "Oh no. A dead end!"

Pyrrha and Jaune had finally caught up with them at the top of the stairway. Both Mercury and Emerald were nervous. The warriors heaved for a few seconds before glaring at their opponents.

"End of the line, villains!" Jaune shouted.

Pyrrha pulled one of her swords from the string belt. "It's over!"

Charging forward, she swung her sword, only to have them disappear in a flash. She almost stumbled over the edge and fell, but Jaune swiftly grabbed her wrist in time.

"Gotcha!"

"Thanks Jaune."

He pulled her forward and then they stepped down a few steps to get away from the edge. "What... what just happened?!"

Pyrrha lamented. "We've been tricked."

He raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"I was thinking about this a few days ago. During the singles round, I thought that I saw Penny create hundreds of swords in front of my eyes, but in reality, there weren't that many blades. Before that, Yang attacked Mercury when he approached her calmly, but she claimed she saw him about to attach her. At first, I thought it was an illusion, but if it was an illusion, everyone would have seen Mercury approach her intending to fight her and Yang wouldn't have been eliminated and blamed for attacking a student. Emerald's semblance isn't illusions. It's creating hallucinations..." She paused for a moment. "And that's even more dangerous."

Jaune had no words, but instead gave his partner the most confused look he had ever given her.

* * *

In a deserted dorm room, their old dorm room actually, Mercury still held the folder in his arms as he and Emerald panted and closed the door behind him, the latter pressing her right hand to the door as she heaved for breath. She then put her scroll back in her pocket.

Merc smirked. "Well done, Em."

"I think we lost them." Her breathing slowly became more steady. "That was too close." Sweat laced her forehead. "But we did it. We got the information."

Mercury sat down on the bed as his breathing became more steady. "If it weren't for the fact that we're exhausted, trying to get to Beacon for hours and then the chase in which we almost got arrested, I would suggest getting to Salem's realm immediately."

She wiped off the sweat with her arm and exhaled her breath upwards, attempting to cool herself. "You make a good point. Besides, no one would even find us here anyway. But just to be safe..."

She shut the curtains as Mercury set down the folder with Ruby's information on his bed. "Although since we're here and have a chance to catch our breath and rest, I'm curious; What all this does this contain?" He opened the folder and examined the papers. Emerald sat down beside him and began to read silently along with him.

"Well, this is even better than I could have thought." Emerald remarked.

"Oh, yes. Salem will be very pleased with us."

* * *

Flying over the land, a crow landed on the ground before shifting and standing up in the form of a human. Qrow Branwen had finally arrived at the Xiao Long-Rose family home. As he entered, he saw Taiyang Xiao Long tuning in to the radio, trying hopelessly to get a signal, radio static heard in the living room as he did this.

Taiyang sighed. "Nothing."

Qrow said, "Just turn it off. Without the CCT, there's no point."

"Communication down across the entire kingdom, no way to contact the outside world... and Ozpin's still missing."

 **"** Yeah."

"This is bad, Qrow."

Taiyang turned off the radio and hung his head as Qrow looked down in somber agreement. "Yeah, this is bad."


	9. Evacuate the Dance Floor

The music blared as people danced on the square dance floor. White headlights shone down on the floor, which was surrounded by a few pillars changing colors to black, white and red, along with walls reflecting those said colors and holograms of trees before an octagonal walkway. From the entrance, at the top of the octagon, was the DJ's turntable. The left side of the octagon lead to a bar. The right side of the octagon was a few tables and a small restaurant to get food. The whole floor space area (not counting the hallway people walked through to get here) was about the size of two basketball courts put together. This dance club/bar was known as the Black Loophole, run by by Junior Xiong.

As people danced and drank the night away, a certain young lady sat at a table with a basket of chicken wings, which were barely even touched. Next to her chair was a pink umbrella with a lace design, and a tall glass with a pink beverage and a little white umbrella was clinked back down on the table.

 _What do I do now?_ Neopolitan thought to herself.

She imagined what Roman would tell her to do. A miniature version of Roman with angel wings and a halo over his head appeared by her right shoulder.

"I know it's hard, but you must move on. Rob a bank, run away, and try to live a normal, happy life..." he said.

A miniature version of Roman with red devil wings appeared nearby her left shoulder. "No, don't listen to him. He's lying. You must carry on my legacy and become the queen of the criminal underworld!"

The two imaginary mini-Romans disappeared. The thought of her being the 'Queen of Thieves' made her smile briefly. Who knows? Maybe if she carried on his work, maybe she could also get revenge on that thrice-damned Ruby.

"Why is she here?" Melanie asked.

"Yeah, totally weird." Militia added.

"Well, she used to work with the best criminal of Vale, the King of Thieves, Roman Torchwick." Junior answered as he polished a glass. "But however, when he fell in battle..." Neo threw her umbrella at Miltia's plate, breaking it and her slice of pizza into several pieces. The owner of the club sweated a little and laughed nervously. "Hehe... She's... still rather sensitive about that."

"My pizza!"

"You!" Junior pointed to one of his henchmen. "Get her another slice of pepperoni."

The man walked off to fulfill his order.

 _Well, it could be worse._ Neo thought to herself.

"Hey, you!" a voice screamed. A girl with a black bow in her raven hair seemed to be pointing towards Junior. "You have some intel that I want."

Junior looked terrified. "Who told you that I...?"

The girl dismissed him. "No, not you. You!" She pointed closer to her target, Neo.

 _Hmm... I remember her. What was her name again?_

* * *

Meanwhile, the two criminal underlings of Cinder were back in the palace. As the black portal faded, they found themselves in the hallway. Mercury still held onto the folder of files and smiled as Emerald breathed in steadily, trying to calm herself.

"Alright, we made it." Mercury said.

"Yeah, but we were this close to being caught and apprehended." Emerald used her right thumb and index finger less than an inch apart. "Hopefully I'll actually be able to sleep after this mission."

"Now to find Mistress Salem and give her what she requested."

"No need to go searching for me." she said, stepping out of the darkness. "I see you have found the necessary files."

"We have reviewed the information and we believe you will be most pleased."

She took the folder out of his hands and began to read some of the information. " _'Name: Ruby Rose. Age: 15. Birthdate: October 31st, 63 AGW. Address:_ _Xiao Long-Rose Family Home,_ _Patch, 7513 Thunder_ _Road.'_ " She closed the folder and looked at the remaining members of Cinder's faction. "You guys got even more information that I thought you would be able to acquire. Very well done."

"It certainly helped that the scrolls Emerald stole from the guards just happened to be one belonging to a former faculty member at Beacon Academy." Mercury mentioned to highlight his partner in crime's success.

Emerald smiled nervously as her face warmed up, dismissing Mercury. "Oh, stop it."

Salem smiled maliciously. "How fortuitous."

* * *

Blake Belladonna had been searching for Neopolitan for three days. Now she had found her. She approached the ice cream colored criminal with a look of pure anger and hatred. "You have something I want."

Neo pointed to herself with her index finger as if to say, _Me?_

"That's right. You have some information I want." Blake swiftly pulled out her blade and held it to her neck. "So start talking! What do you know about the Vale Branch of the White Fang's current location?"

Neo shrugged, the universal gesture for _I don't know_.

"Don't try that with me!" Blake commanded. "I know you're not mute! I heard you gasp!" Neo stepped on Blake's foot and kicked her down. She laughed at her as she tumbled to the ground, crashing into the dance floor. As people evacuated the floor, Blake moaned and got up, seeing Neo covering her mouth with her hand and attempting to be cute. "I knew it! You just laughed!" Neo stood there in silence. Blake retrieved her weapon and broke the silence. "Fine then. If you're not going to talk, then I'll just make you speak!"

Neo backflipped, grabbed her weapon, swung her hips to the right and put her brella on her left shoulder. She then taunted Blake with her right hand as if to say, _Bring it on._

Blake charged towards Neopolitan, slashing at her with a blur of shadow afterimages visible as she continuously attacked with her weapon and Semblance, followed by Neo's retaliation of defending herself with the form of her closed umbrella before whacking Blake in the head with it, knocking her down. As she slid back, Neo used the opportunity to create illusions of herself. As Blake stood up, there were ten different versions of Neopolitan on the dance floor, which by now was completely deserted save for the two fighters. She growled under her breath as the illusions came forth to attack her, with Blake striking down the first two false images, shattering like glass. She propelled herself towards the third one, striking down the third with her blade. _  
_

She got out her sheath and used it in simultaneous action to strike down the fourth and fifth 'clones' and as the last few went towards her, she hooked the ribbon to the nearest leg of DJ's turntable and used it to swing herself to the side as the clones ran into each other with their umbrellas, and then coming back full circle, taking out the remaining illusions. She was then kicked down by Neo. The ice cream girl chuckled at her, further irritating Blake.

 _She creates illusions of whatever she desires, I create these shadow clones._ Blake mentally noted, getting up from the ground. _I have to outsmart her, but how?_

She then remembered she had a small amount of dust left from the vials Weiss give her during the events of the White Fang train fight. She needed to think of a plan, and quickly. She hadn't landed a single hit on Neopolitan, while Blake had been knocked down a few times. As she tried to formulate a plan, Blake swapped her katana for her kama gun and began to fire to at her. As Neo ran towards the one of the pillars, she continued to fire, causing the upper left pillar to collapse and crumble into pieces. Neo continued to run as she fired at the walls, the upper right pillar and at some holographic trees at Neo tried to camouflage herself in, only to rush and evade Blake's gunfire. Eventually, after dodging Blake's low roundhouse kick by jumping into the air, Neo punched her in the face, knocking her into a glass structure.

Neo, using her brella, scaled up one of the remaining pillars and placed herself on the top of circle of headlights that shone down on the dance floor they battled on. Blake used the ribbon to hook it to a light and then swing herself upwards to reach her adversary on top of the lights. The two fought each other on top of the circle of headlights, Neo's closed parasol clashing against Blake's katana. She used her Semblance to create a fire shadow clone of herself, and Neo struck it, not realizing it was a trick.

She gasped and raised her eyebrows as if to say, _Oh fuck!_

The fire clone exploded, knocking her down and part of the circle collapsed. Neo stuck her brella into the metal bars, keeping herself from falling. She pulled herself back up and opened her brella, shielding herself from Blake's katana strikes. Eventually, she closed her umbrella, catching Blake's sword within it, and knocked her down, only to have Blake grab onto the bars and hoist herself back up, then kicked Neo down, retrieved her weapon and shifted from katana to her gun. Neo ran around the circle, destroying all the headlights and Neo jumped at the gap, causing Blake to fire upwards and she inadvertently fired at the ceiling before hitting Neo, who fell to the ground on her butt. Blake smirked briefly before part of the structure started to come down. The sounds of terrified screams filled the air as the club was being destroyed.

"This is place is going down!" someone exclaimed in fear.

"Evacuate the premises immediately!" Junior ordered.

The crowd of civilians and Junior's henchmen ran out of the room. Junior, and the twins, Miltia and Melanie Malachite, soon followed everyone's else lead and Neo smirked at her opponent. Beneath her feet, the metal circle crumbled, and Blake screamed as she fell to the ground.

Neo stood there with her parasol open and the rod on her shoulder, as if to say, _Nice try, bitch._

Getting up, Blake growled, determined to get answers no matter what.

* * *

"And that is the end of this tragic tale."

As the three stood in the hallway right outside Weiss Schnee's room, the young huntress finished explaining the Fall of Beacon to Klein and Estelle, both of whom were in tears. They stood there, tears falling down their cheeks. Weiss wanted to join them, but she had no more tears left to cry. After a moment of silence for the lives lost in the Fall of Beacon and to come to terms with everything, the somber silence was broken.

"Man... that truly is a tragedy." Klein spoke. "Enough to make any man, woman or child cry."

"Oh man... That is too sad for words..." Estelle sniffed and got out her handkerchief and blew her nose into it. "I'm such an ugly crier. This always happens when I start to bawl my eyes out."

"It's alright, Estelle. We don't judge." Klein turned back to Weiss. "Are you... feeling any better?"

"A little I suppose." She turned away and pressed her hand to the wall. "It's just... where do I go from here? What should I do?"

Unfortunately, neither of them had an answer.

* * *

Back at the Black Loophole, the battle continued. Blake focused on her intentions and created an ice clone, in which Neo had her parasol caught in. She tried to pull it out, without luck. Blake used the opportunity to kick her down, causing her to roll right into the wall. By this point, everyone save for Neo and Blake had fled the club. The few that remained were outside either surveying the battle or waiting around anxiously.

The rubble that fell down broke the ice, allowing Neo to retrieve her weapon. Blake moved rapidly, slashing at Neo's parasol ceaselessly, and after doing this for roughly then seconds, her katana cut through part of the brella, creating a huge slit in her weapon. She then kicked her in her wrist, making her drop her damaged weapon and knocking her down at the same time. Neoplitan retrieved her weapon and glared at her with pure anger in her eyes.

She charged forward and Blake kicked her into the lower left pillar, shattering it. Neo knew she was about to be beaten, she needed a new plan and quickly. She created more illusions, this time of White Fang members charging towards her. She looked around for Neo as they charged towards her and found that she was right behind her in mid-air, and Blake used the ribbon to tangle her up and then threw her into the last pillar, breaking it into pieces and dispelling the illusion as Neo's aura broke. She was surrounded by pink energy before it all vanished in the blink of an eye.

Neo sat up, holding her head in pain. Blake grabbed Neo by the collar and pulled her closer to glare at her defeated opponent. "Alright, you mute bitch, start talking!" she commanded. "What do you know about Adam Taurus's current location?"

She felt a tap on her shoulder, turned around and gasped. Adam Taurus? In the flesh?

For a moment, she was too shocked to move. But that moment was all her foe needed for Blake to subconsciously let go of her opponent. She screamed as she was knocked back by Neo's parasol as the illusion shattered. She ended up hitting her head against the wall, causing pain and dizziness. She tried to stand, but as she rose her head was spinning. As Neopolitan laughed mischievously and ran away, she collapsed to the ground and everything faded to black.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the dark of night, Sun was running through the city, looking desperately for Blake.

"Blaaake! Where are you?! Blake!" He stopped as he heard a soft cry. He followed the sound, and saw Blake in the ruins of Beacon Academy, sobbing softly on her knees. Sun ran to her. "Blake!" He knelt by her side. "What's wrong? Talk to me, please!"

"Sun..." She sobbed into his chest. "I'm so sorry..." She threw her arms around him and he returned them in a loving embrace.

Suddenly black shadowy mist surrounded them. "You can't run forever, Blake." a voice Sun didn't recognize spoke (Adam Taurus). "You will suffer for what you've done!"

A shadow of the man who spoke to him manifested a few feet away from them. Sun got up and turned to face the shadow. He charged towards him, but he kicked him down and grabbed Blake's wrists after she tried to run, chaining them behind her back. "Sun!"

"Blake!"

He dragged her away from Sun with a chain. She tried to fight back, to get away from him, but her efforts were futile. "Stop it!" she shouted.

"Leave her alone!" Sun ran after her, but she was dragged into the darkness. Sun fell to his knees, panicked and tormented. "Blake! BLAKE!"

He woke up, gasping for air. He sat up and tried to calm himself. He groaned. "Damn it... Not again..." He spoke as quiet as possible.

Nearby the wall, Neptune, Scarlet and Sage looked on as their leader awoke from his nightmare and started to sulk. The blue-haired warrior sighed. "This is the third time this week he's woken up because of a nightmare. We gotta do something. Guys, huddle up." They huddled together in a circle.

"This ain't good." Scarlet started the conservation. "I'm worried about him."

"His sleep pattern is becoming stranger and more out of sync." Sage commented. "Also he's barely eaten, snapped at one or more of us at least four times a day, and now the nightmares. I can't believe this is all happening because his love interest left him."

"This is bad." Neptune said. "But what can we even do, if anything?"

"Maybe take him back home? Shade's planes have come and gone, and Atlas's bullheads are loading up right now." Scarlet added, before they looked at team FNKI, dragging along their bags. Neon Katt looked really worried, but Flynt Coal was trying to reassure her as best as he could. "Haven will be here before we know it."

Sage sulked. "But how are we going to get through next semester with a broken and devastated leader?"

"Is it just me, or do I have a feeling that Sun doesn't want to come back with us?" Neptune asked.

Scarlet raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"I can't help but get the feeling that he wants to go after Blake and to try and aid his crush in any way that he can."

He dismissed it. "There's no way he'd do that. Would he?"

"I don't know, but what would be worse? Trying to operate as a team with a crestfallen leader who can't get over some girl? Or trying to function without his presence?" Sage asked.

The other two shrugged in response. Although they didn't realize it, Sun overheard their every word. As he listened to their conversation, he felt even worse now. Guilt gnawed at his heart. He felt torn between his team and his crush.

 _Why can't I make up my mind?_

* * *

Her head spun. The police sirens were the first thing Blake heard as she slowly regained consciousness. She groaned, slowly opening her eyes and arising to see the full extent of the damage done to the club. The place had part of its walls crumbled into pieces and part of its roof collapsed, the DJ's turntable, pillars, lights and dance floor had been smashed and the whole place was dark. No lights, no electricity, no sound. One could walk this place and fantasize about how people once danced to music, drank and hang out here. Now there was nothing left here but ruin. As this was the second floor, she was amazed that the rest of the building didn't tumble down in the wake of her destruction. She then heard the sirens getting louder.

"Oh no..."

And then the consequences of what she had just done hit her like a ton of bricks.

 _What have I done?_

The police sirens stopped as the cop cars parked on the side of the street. From the first car emerged two policemen, and from the second car came a policewoman. The men glared at her while the woman gave her a leery look. All the while, Blake looked really nervous and scared.

The first man surveyed the damage and then asked, "Oh good gods, what in the world happened here?"

"I don't know, but I think that girl," the second one motioned to Blake up in the remains of the Black Loophole, "might have some answers."

The color drained from her face. Blake held up her hands. "Look, officers, I can explain!"

"Come down from there!" the woman demanded.

"Are you going to arrest me?"

"Just come down from there!"

Reluctantly, she jumped down and looked at the officers uncomfortably. She then noted the female officer had a pair of handcuffs on her belt before taking them off and holding them in her right hand. Blake tried to reach for her weapon, which was camouflaged by her hair. The female officer saw this out the corner of left eye.

"Don't even try to reach for a weapon or we'll get out the handcuffs now." She slowly took her hand away and held her hands in surrender. "Now then, if you're not going to attempt to murder us, tell us what happened. And don't even think about running."

Blake sighed, looking down in sorrow and regret. "It's a long story."


	10. Nothing's Alright, Nothing is Fine

Back at the warehouse, the bullhead was transporting Haven Academy students and former Beacon students going to Haven. The planes for Shade Academy had come and gone, and Atlas just left not too long ago. Team ABRN was ascending the ramp and boarding the bullhead.

"Sun, come on. We're moving!" Sage groaned.

The leader of team SSSN said nothing and looked away. "Sun, are you... thinking of going after her?" Neptune asked.

Sun sighed, turning to his team. "I have to face facts. Even if I left now, there's little chance of me finding her. Even smaller chance of me winning her heart. I can't stay, but I can't go back either..."

Sage blinked, as if in realization. "She really means that much to you?"

He turned away as a small tear slid down his cheek. "She means everything to me." He wiped the tear off his face and attempted to dry his eyes.

"Then go. Help her." Sun turned to Sage.

"We give you full permission to go forth and aid Blake." Scarlet added.

Neptune smiled in reassurance. "We're not going to make you choose between your team and your girl. We'll allow you to do what you believe is right."

"Thanks guys." He smiled before his displaying a sorrowful expression once again. "But she's not even my girlfriend."

"Not yet." Neptune smirked. "Maybe he still has a chance."

"Oh, that's unlikely." Sage commented. "Either way, hopefully Sun can find her before she ends up in hot water."

"I still can't believe she's taking on the White Fang all by herself." Neptune rolled his eyes. "She's crazy. Why did she run away in the first place?"

Sun sighed and answered, "She left because a member of the White Fang, whose name I do not know, severed Yang's right arm during the Fall of Beacon. I believe she wants not only revenge against him, but to take down the entire terrorist organization as well."

Sun's teammates looked grim. "She's probably trying to prevent another tragedy like that from happening again." Scarlet said. "Which might also explain why she left everyone in the dust. She's trying to protect everyone she cares about by facing them by herself."

"You really think that's the case?" Sage asked.

"Yeah, I do."

"Well then, since I must leave, there's only one thing to do." Sun blinked at Neptune, who got on his left knee and then the former out his staff and gently tapped it against his right and left shoulder as he spoke. "I, Sun Wukong, pass the mantle of leadership to Neptune Vasilias once again, until I return."

Sun's teammates dragged him into a big group hug. He threw his arms around his teammates, lucky to have such great friends who understood him. Sage gave him a slightly crooked smile. "Good luck, Sun. May you have safe travels."

"Goodbye and good luck!" Scarlet encouraged. "I hope you succeed in all your endeavors!"

Neptune grasped his shoulder. "Take care, my man. You've got this. Now go forth and find her!"

Sun smiled briefly. "Thanks. I'm probably going to need some good luck."

His teammates walked towards the plane as Sun ran off into the fading day.

 _Hopefully I can find Blake before she gets herself in trouble._

* * *

Unbeknownst to him, Blake had already gotten into trouble. She was being interrogated by the cops and was forced to explain everything (while still trying to conceal her Faunus heritage and history with the White Fang). No one was there, save for the police officers and the girl who was secretly a cat faunus.

"And that's what happened." she finished.

"Hmm..." the female officer began. "So let us get this straight; Basically, the leader of the Vale White Fang Branch, a bull Faunus with horns named Adam Taurus not only helped to lead the attack on Beacon Academy, but he also attacked your best friend named Yang Xiao-Long, your former partner/teammate and severed her right arm. For these reasons, you're seeking to take him and the White Fang down. Since you had no idea where he and his subordinates ran off to, you searched the city for his allies. First it was Roman Torchwick, but after a week of searching for him with no luck, you decided to shift gears and go after Roman's ally, an appropriately colored ice cream girl by the name of Neopolitan. You found her at a club called the Black Loophole, engaged her in a duel to try and get answers, unintentionally destroying the place in the process, and before you blacked out, she got away by creating an image of the man you're hunting down?"

"Pretty much." She rubbed her right arm nervously. "Are you upset?"

"Yeah, we're upset!" the second one answered. "I can understand why you're doing this, but this is really unnecessary!"

"Also, you're blindly rushing into a situation. If he cut off your friend's arm, should you be trying to find him with this fire of vengeance consuming your heart, mind and even your very soul?" the first one asked her.

"Well, I can't just stand around and do nothing!" Blake refuted. "I must stop him, no matter what. Unfortunately, I've run out of leads. Roman could be dead, Neo's fled to who knows where, and I have no more locations to search."

"Locations? What do you mean by that?" the second one inquired.

"I'll show you, if you'll allow me to." She pulled out the map she found at the first warehouse and showed it to the police officers. "I've been to every one of these locations. The circles represent dust shops, while the X's represent warehouses or hideouts. I never quite figured out why that one circle has a red dot on it."

"And you've been to every one of these locations?" the third one interrogated.

"Yeah, I've.." Then she noticed something. "Oh... Wait a second. There's one that I forgot about." She pointed to an X on an island northwest of Vale. "The safehouse on Patch." She brought the map to her eyes. "Looks like it's in or around a city called Fiti. I've heard about this city, said to be a beautiful coastal city that's warm almost all year round." She folded it up and pocketed it. Blake stood there in dreadful silence, fearing what was to come next.

The female officer mused to herself. "This is a most tricky situation." She turned to her cohorts. "Should we do anything? I mean she didn't mean to cause destruction and she's trying to fight against a terrorist group."

The second one rolled his eyes. "She's crazy. One girl can't take down an entire criminal organization."

Blake quipped back, "I can try."

"Also, as a human fighting a Faunus terrorist group, if they caught her, she would be killed instantly."

"It wouldn't matter, human or Faunus, fighting against them when not fully prepared is the equivalent of a death wish." the first one added.

Blake rolled her eyes. _Tell me something I don't know.  
_

"Hmm. Could you describe what this Adam Taurus looks like?" the female officer asked her.

"I would, but I can do you one better." She got out her sketchbook, flipped through the pages and stopped in the middle of it. "Here is a drawing of my target." She showed them a full body composite sketch of Adam Taurus to them.

The police officer snapped a picture of her enemy. "This will be most helpful."

"So what will we do with her?" the first officer asked, motioning to Blake.

"Let her go."

They looked at her in disbelief. The first one glared at his female coworker. "You're letting her go?"

"Why?!"

"The White Fang caused much more damage than she did, and she's trying to stop them, bravely risking everything to do all by herself. Also, thanks to her sketchbook, now we know who we're looking for." She turned to Blake. "You may go." She started to walk away. "Halt." She stopped to face her once again. "Before you leave, I advise that you exercise caution, and good luck. You'll need it."

Blake faintly smiled before turning away and leaving the scene.

* * *

Back at the Xiao-Long Rose Family home, a certain young girl was finally waking up. She looked over to see her father asleep in a chair before sitting up and sighing quietly to herself.

Taiyang woke up and smiled with glee. "Ruby!" He ran to her and knelt by her bedside. "You're awake!"

She held her hand to her forehead. "Ugh... what happened?"

"Your uncle Qrow found you, unconscious. He got you out of there, though, and brought you home safe." he explained.

Ruby felt crestfallen, then she remembered... "Wait! Yang! Is she alright!?"

Her father hesitated. "Uh... She's uh... she's gonna be alright. I think she's just... I think it's just gonna take some time for her to get used to things. She's too strong to let this stop her." He teared up for a moment before smiling. "I'm just glad to have my girls back at home."

Ruby looked at him sadly. "What happened to the school?! And Vale?! Were they able to clear out the Grimm?"

 **"** Things at Vale are under control, but the school... It's... it's not that simple. That thing, whatever it is, doesn't seem to be dead. Don't get me wrong, you did a number on it. But it's not disappearing. It's... kind of... frozen. I know that doesn't sound too bad, but it keeps attracting more Grimm to the school."

Ruby titled her head in bewilderment. "I did... what?" Taiyang looked at her, puzzled. "You said I did a number on it. What do you mean?"

He stammered. "I... Look that's not important right now. We can talk about it later. Things are just... kind of a mess."

"It's always a mess."said a familiar voice. The father and daughter looked the other way and saw Qrow standing in the room over by the door. He finished drinking a flask of liquor before turning to Taiyang. "Mind if we have a minute?"

Taiyang looked at his former teammate, rather offended. "What, I can't stay here?!"

"Tai. Please."

Begrudgingly, he stood up, sighed and then kissed Ruby on the forehead.

 **"** I'm glad you're alright." He began to walk away. "I'll go make us some tea."

Ruby's father glared at Qrow as he left the room, but he pretended not to care. The latter then approached her bed, grabbed the chair Taiyang used earlier, spun it around to face the bed and sat down slouching crossing one leg over the other. **"** So, how you feeling?"

"Um... I kind of hurt... all over."

Her honorary uncle chuckled. "That makes sense, after what you did. _"_

As he crossed his arms, Ruby suddenly snapped. "You guys keep saying that! That I did something! What are you talking about?!"

Qrow uncrossed his legs and arms and asked her, "What's the last thing you remember?"

 **"** I ran up the side of the tower, and when I got to the top, I..." She gasped as her eyes reflected sadness. "Pyrrha! Is she...?"

"She's alive, much to my surprise, although I can't say how her near death experience affected her. The tower?"

 **"** I... I... I got to the top... and I saw Pyrrha pinned down by an arrow to her boot... about to be killed by Cinder. A Griffon showed up. I used the distraction... to free her. Then... I called Cinder out... for her crime... of infiltrating the CCT... She admitted her guilt... and shoot an arrow at me as Pyrrha shielded me from her attack.. I remember her lying in a pool of blood, Cinder laughing at her misery..." She griped the blanket. "and then everything went white!"

"Anything else?"

"I remember... my head hurting."

"The night you met Ozpin, what was the first thing he said to you?"

She stammered. "I... I don't know. I think it was something about..."

"Silver eyes. That's an extremely rare trait."

"So?"

"You're special, Ruby. And not in the ' _Daddy loves his special angel'_ kind of way. You're special the same way your mom was. Remnant's full of legends and stories, some of them true, some made up. But there's one Oz told me from a very long time ago. Back before Huntsmen, before Kingdoms, it was said that those born with silver eyes were destined to lead the life of a warrior. You see, the creatures of Grimm, the most fearsome monsters mankind had ever encountered, were afraid of those silver-eyed warriors. They were the best of the best. It was said that even a single look from one of these fighters could strike a Grimm down. Heh. It's a ridiculous story."

She looked at him bewildered. "But... you think that I might be..."

He chuckled. "Well, a giant monster is currently frozen on top of Beacon Tower. And you're here, safe in bed." He got to his feet and walked over to a window, before leaning on the sill, staring outside.

"Wait, wait, how did _you_ know what Ozpin said to me... the night we met?"

 **"** All those missions I go on... all the times I'm away in some far-off place... it's been for Ozpin. But he's missing now. Something's been set in motion. With Oz gone, I'll have to pick up where he left off."

"And what could I do? If I'm so special, then I can help, right?"

 **"** You really wanna help? Get some rest. You're in no condition to go anywhere right now." He made his way to the door. "Besides, our enemy's trail leads all the way to Haven. That'd be quite a trip for a pipsqueak like you." He winked at her before leaving. "Catch ya later, kiddo. _"_

Ruby sits alone for a while. She looks at the window that Qrow looked out of, then stares at herself in a mirror hanging on the wall across from her bed.

* * *

Yang sat alone in a spare bedroom, staring out a window at nothing. She looked at her nightstand next to bed, on top of which the remaining piece of Ember Celica rested. Ruby stood at the doorway. "Yang?"

The younger one waited for a response, but didn't get one, so she turned to leave.

"Ruby..."

Turning back around, Ruby ran towards Yang as she turned her head to look at her younger sister, tears now in her eyes. Ruby threw her arms around her sister.

"I'm so glad you're okay!"

"But I'm not." Ruby frowned as she released the hug. "It's all gone - the school, Penny, and..." She looked at her missing right arm, too sorrowful to actually speak.

Trying not to make matters worse, she asked, "Yang, where are Weiss and Blake?"

"Weiss' father... came for her."

"What? What do you mean?"

 **"** No one outside of Vale knows what happened here. Before the tower fell, the last thing people saw was Atlas attacking innocent people and Grimm destroying the city. Everyone's scared. No one knows who to trust. So, Weiss' father came to take her back to Atlas, where he thinks it's safe. I never saw her again... She's gone."

"Well, what about-"

Suddenly Yang snapped. "And _Blake ran_! Sun saw her go and tried to stop her, to no avail. After we got to the safehouse, she packed her bags in the middle of the night and just... _ran_!"

Ruby was on the verge of crying, and had to stop the tears in her eyes from falling. "But... why!?"

 **"** I don't know... and I don't care."

"There has to be a reason she-"

"No, there _doesn't_!" she interrupted. "Sometimes bad things just _happen_ , Ruby!"

Crestfallen, she asked Yang, "So, what do we do now?"

She turned away from her sister. "You can do whatever you want. I'm gonna lie here."

"Yang..."

"Just leave me alone."

Ruby slowly started to leave the room, but she stopped in the doorway and looked over her shoulder to say one last thing before leaving. "I love you."

She then left, a few tears falling from her eyes as she went back to her room. A leaf fell from the tree outside Yang's window and slowly drifted to the ground. From another tree, a lone raven witnessed the entire scene. The raven stood there for another moment or two before taking off to the skies.


	11. Truly, Madly, Deeply

Author's Notes:

-Alright, I think you've guys had enough angst and soul-crushing sorrow for now. In the words of Monty Python, "And now for something completely different." Now we get to the lemons and limes featuring the always adored Arkos pairing. Considering that RWBY is geared towards teens, I highly doubt little kids would be watching it (or reading this fanfic) but this is your last warning if you don't like sex scenes. This one is in the second section (not counting the author's notes part), so you best scram! (Or alternatively, you could just skip to the third section where we see a familiar face... See if you can figure it out before their identity is revealed!)

-To those of you who read the second section, any tips, suggestions and constructive criticism would be most appreciated since this is the first time I've ever written anything like this. This was not easy to write. (The hardest part to write actually...)

-Either way, I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Ruby had been told that she had been unconscious for 10 days, but she had only been awake for five hours afterwards. She was told to rest, but she felt restless. Even though her body ached all over when she first woke up, it faded within an hour or so. What's a girl to do? She never really liked books, so reading wouldn't work for her. She would clean her room, which was usually a mess, but it was already in good shape. That meant only one thing left to do; play with the dog. It was late in the day, the sun was setting as Zwei and Ruby stood a few feet from the house, the young huntress with an item in her hand.

"Well they say dogs do reduce stress levels," she spoke to herself. "so why not?" She held out one of his chew toys, a plastic dog bone, and pressed the toy with her fingers, making it squeak. "Here boy." She threw it across the yard. "Fetch!" As Zwei ran across the yard, he accidentally ended up running into the mailbox, knocking it over, spilling out a single letter. He moaned in pain. Ruby ran over to him. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?!"

He moaned as Ruby gently petted him, trying to reassure him that everything would be okay. After doing this for a few minutes, he stopped whimpering as the pain subsided, and she looked at the letter.

Ruby was initially surprised, as hardly anyone delivered mail these days. Then again, with the fall of the CCT tower in Beacon, it was no surprise that people would revert to using pen or pencil and paper. She reached for the letter and picked it up, wondering who would write to her dad. But as she got up from her knees and examined it, she realized it wasn't addressed to him; It was addressed to her sister Yang. The address looked familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen it before. Nonetheless, she went inside and was about to head to Yang's new room to deliver the note when she saw her father at the foot of the stairs.

"Ruby? What are you doing out of bed?" he asked.

"I got restless, so I figured I'd take Zwei outside and play with him." She presented the letter. "While playing fetch he knocked over the mailbox and this letter spilled out. He's alright now..."

Taiyang took the envelope from her. "I see. Hopefully this will help lift her spirits, if only slightly..."

He went up the stairs to deliver the message to Yang. As he went out of earshot, she softly sighed and started to return outside. She tried to find the light, a reason to continue smiling, but was light truly everlasting, no matter what may occur? She shrugged it off and went back outside to find Zwei had retrieved the bone. She laughed and smiled as she petted the dog. Maybe not all was lost.

* * *

Night had fallen over the land of Vale. The master bedroom was mostly dark, save for the lamp on the desk with a mirror on it. Pyrrha Nikos stood in front of the mirror in her dark red V-neck nightgown, which reached to her knees and elbows. She took her red hairbrush and tried to get through her hair, which was a slight rat's nest. She worked her way through her hair, sometimes using her fingers to separate the tangles.

When she was done, she set the hairbrush down and left it loose, her crimson colored hair tumbling down slightly past her waist. She tucked her bangs behind her ears and looked at her reflection in the mirror. The bruises and wounds from her battle with Cinder were gone, making her look like a beautiful young lady instead of a defeated warrior. She briefly smiled to herself and her mind turned to her new boyfriend; Jaune Arc.

She had been three kinds of crazy over him throughout the last year; truly, madly, and deeply. The first part, truly, was created by the true love that had blossomed from their friendship over their first and only year at Beacon, and how much she cared about him. The second part, madly, was driven by his good looks and her hormones, which made her desire to do... naughty things with him. And the third and final part, deeply, was formed from a mixture of truly and madly combined with the desire to protect him.

A small heat rose through her stomach. She shouldn't have been feeling like this. She knew she shouldn't have these deep desires that were often seen as forbidden. She was also aware some would call it scandalous, but she didn't care. She couldn't ignore it, her horniness increasing the more she thought of him. She wanted him to make love to her. She didn't want to force him into something he didn't want, but she wanted to make him want her as much as she wanted him.

 _How will I do this?_

Mere moments later, Jaune entered the room, smiling upon seeing her. He was in his pajamas and ready to sleep, but he wouldn't sleep. At least, not right away. After having a crush on this dork for the longest time, she loved him and was going to make him hers. If she could make this work...

"Hey Pyrrha." he greeted.

She smiled warmly and responded with, "Hello there, hotness."

The young arc couldn't help but blush for some reason. He smiled and tried to laugh it off. "It's been a long day, and we still have to get my shield and your spear repaired. I'm going to bed." Jaune turned off the light from the lamp, got into the bed and Pyrrha followed by placing herself on top of him, entangling their legs within each other. She put her right hand to his chest. "Uh... Pyrrha?"

She gently stroked her fingers with her other hand against his cheek. "Have ever told you how lucky I feel having you as the love of my life?"

He felt his heart thumping in his chest. "Yes... and I'm the luckiest man in the world to have you by my side."

"Jaune..."

Pyrrha pressed her lips to Jaune's, dragging him into a passionate kiss, opening her mouth to explore his. He followed her lead and felt his tongue touch hers. He closed his eyes and without even thinking about it, slid his hands around her waist as they deepened the kiss. He wanted her just as much she wanted him. As they broke the kiss, he looked at the face of the woman he loved so dearly. Her eyes glistened like emeralds, her lips were soft and she had the most gorgeous face. The face of an angel, a goddess. He wanted to say something but his thought vanished as he got lost in her gorgeous green eyes.

"Pyrrha..." He spoke her name as she lifted his shirt up. She smirked as she slowly took it off, bringing out her dominant nature.

"Say my name again." she commanded.

"Pyrrha..."

He was now shirtless, exposing his abs. She smiled to herself at how much he changed from the beginning of the year. At the start of their time at Beacon, Jaune's arms had been weaker than limp noodles. Now he had a six pack and was more muscular, albeit he was still kinda a dork.

 _But he's my dork._ She thought to herself.

She discarded the shirt, tossing it aside. "Have I ever told you just how handsome you look shirtless?"

He nervously smiled. "Can't say that you have."

"Well, it's true."

She quickly kissed him several times, starting at the sternum and trailing all the way to his neck, nibbling and leaving a hickey where she stopped.

He moaned in pleasure. "Pyrrha... You're all I want and need..."

"I want you, Jaune... I need you... I love you. Truly, madly, deeply..."

She then proceeded to unzip his pants and dragged them down. He felt a climax slowly building up and she could feel that she was turning him on. He smiled all the while and offered no objections to this.

 _Perfect. Just perfect._

She discarded his pants and got down to his red boxers. She slowly reached for them when suddenly Jaune raised his eyebrows and displayed a look of nervousness.

"Uh, Pyrrha... Are you sure we should we be doing this?"

She was a little bit annoyed, but tried not to show it. "Well, why wouldn't we?"

"Two.. two reasons." he began, babbling like an idiot. He tried to be more coherent and ignore the bulge in his underpants. "One, isn't this rather scandalous? And two, what if you fall pregnant? Cause I am not ready to..."

She smirked and answered, "Okay, Jaune, slow down. Scandalous? Yes. Do I care? No. Also, I'm on birth control. The most effective kind." She stroked his fingers down his face. "Do you want to continue?"

He nodded eagerly. "Yes."

A smug smile formed on her face. "I knew it."

Wrapping her right arm around his butt, she dragged his underwear down from his rear and used her free hand to slowly drag them down his body. Once she discarded his boxers, she gasped in awe.

"Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing." She smirked continued in her sexiest voice, "I never knew you had such a large katana."

When erect, his dick was a length of 14 inches. She smirked as she stood up and undressed herself, which considering that she wore only a simple nightgown, wasn't all that difficult. Nonetheless, Jaune watched on as she slid one arm out of her sleeve, then the other and grabbed the hem, taking off the nightgown. When she tossed it away with the other discarded clothes, Jaune looked upon her nearly naked form; her abundant breasts, her red silk thong hugging her hips, so thick and so sweet like honey. He wanted her more than ever. With swift and simple movements, she discarded her final piece of clothing and knelt on top of him.

"Are you ready, my love?"

He looked at her like she was a goddess. "Yes..."

She carefully positioned herself so that her womanhood met his manhood. She softly gasped to herself as she slid down. It was a tight squeeze, but felt like she could take him. All of him. He pushed himself further to her, creating a new sensation of energy flowing through her body. So much from insertion, and this was just the beginning. He wasn't even in all the way yet.

She bit her lip, still smiling. "You're tight."

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry. I've got this." She was always told the first time would hurt a little bit. As she felt equal amounts of pleasure and pain within her, she believed it to be true. The two lovers were experiencing their first orgasm. Pyrrha moaned in glee. "This feels good..."

The young warrior wondered why she didn't do this earlier. But that thought soon left her mind as she took on another inch of Jaune's mansword, slowly slicing through her but then there was nothing but pleasure for both of them. He was completely in her, nothing more to give or take. It was perfect, like eating ice cream on a hot day without fear of a brain-freeze. Jaune didn't even think as he continued to fuck her. Her hips moved on their own, desiring even more this time.

"Harder!" she commanded.

He bucked upwards, thrusting harder and faster than ever before, grinding against her pelvis as he touched even more of her, still finding new areas to create even more pleasure. She felt Jaune's hand travel up her back to her neck and she suddenly bolted upwards, dragging him up to meet his dick once again, causing her hair to fly upwards for a brief time before kissing him again as her hair splashed down on her back like crimson rain. As she rode him, his pelvis grinding against hers, she never felt so alive. She felt him enter her again, pumping hot semen into her vagina. Both of them were on fire within a raging blizzard.

When all was said and done as Pyrrha and Jaune laid there on the bed, tangled up with each other. They were both tired and sweaty, but they never felt more on top of the world. Sex felt great, and after all those acts of pleasure, it was something that neither of them could deny.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a location far away from the city of Vale, in the kingdom of Mistral, a black-cloaked figure was walking through the woods, guided by the pale moonlight. No one could tell with the dim light, but underneath the cloak concealed was a woman with dark skin with slightly darker stripe tattoos covering her body. She stood within the midst of several trees as she looked around and saw the cell tower in the distance. She had been here before, and she knew she was within close enough distance to get a signal, if the CCT was even operative (which it wasn't). It was a dim hope, but she got out her scroll one more time and looked through her contacts list. Towards the bottom she found the name of the person she had been attempting to contact for the last week and a half; Adam Taurus.

She pressed the call button, only to get the same result as last time, and every other time before it; _No signal available for the recipient's area._

 _Of course._ She mentally sighed as she turned the other way, away from the cell tower through the forest to a hidden structure, one that was unknown to many people. The hooded figure looked on the ground to see the claw marks in front of the two bushes. She walked through the bushes and walked a few feet forward to find the structure concealed by many trees nearby a river. The building was a one story structure with the banner of the White Fang's current symbol on it. She saw the entrance of glass doors without any light present from the entrance. She walked up to the doors and placed her hands on the handle, pulling them open. She walked into the building. She remembered that the walls were black, lit only by a few torches on the walls. There were open doorways to led to other parts of the building, but instead of turning and going into one of these hallways, she walked along the black carpet to a set of black and red doors with huge green slash marks.

Much to her surprise, there were no guards in the halls, but it wouldn't have been as problem even if they were present. When she reached these doors, she opened them and walked into a room that looked similar to the hall, only this was illuminated by an overhead chandelier, allowing her to see an empty throne on the opposite side of the room. On the left side was a red sofa with a hardwood table with a few coasters. She let down her hood, revealing a pair of tiger ears, the left of which had two golden hoop shaped earrings. She looked around, but the room was empty.

"Where is she?" the woman spoke.

"High Leader Khan?" another woman spoke.

Sienna Khan turned around to find the woman, the leader of Mistral's branch of the White Fang, bowing down to her. "There you are."

The Mistral leader was a woman in her 30's with dark skin, and green eyes and black hair pulled into a long ponytail extending to her waistline with a green scrunchie. She wore a green knee-length sleeveless dress with fake pearls at the hem, exposing the green snake scales on her arms and legs. She wore green sandals with green padding that were surprisingly comfy. A silver necklace with an emerald pendant in the shape of a tear adorned her neck and donned a green ribbon around her right wrist.

She rose from the ground to meet Sienna's eyes. "High Leader, you have come here directly to me without any advance warning..." She looked around, also noting that she was alone. "and without escorts. How come?"

"Normally, I would not do this, but I have been attempting to contact Vale Leader Adam Taurus for several days without luck. I don't know anything about what happened in Vale, nor what Adam and his..." She felt a vile taste on her tongue as the next words left her mouth. "human allies are up to."

The snake woman frowned at the mention of the word human. "I can not say what has become of Adam... or his new friends, but I can inform you of what happened at Beacon. The attack started shortly after the last duel of the interrupted Vytal Festival, in which world-renowned warrior Pyrrha Nikos tore apart and murdered Penny Polendina, whom, much to everyone's surprise, was actually a robot with an aura." Sienna gave her a look that said, _Really?_ "I don't even know how that's possible. Anyway, a speech was made by an unknown woman, presumably one of Adam's friends, and then the signal for the video broadcast shut down. As the Grimm stirred up with the negative emotions felt by everyone in the live audience, the White Fang began their assault on the school. Soon they hacked into Atlas robots, turning them against innocent civilians by attacking them. With the White Fang and Grimm running amok, the city was under attack. Many students and residents fled for their lives. Some stayed to try and fight.

"The last thing I saw before the CCT went down was a video of this huge Grimm dragon soaring through the skies. Sometime after that, the CCT tower in Beacon must have gone down. How it happened is beyond my knowledge, but as a result we can no longer reach any of the other leaders via wireless communication."

Sienna Khan froze in fear and disbelief. A cold chill crawled up her spine, paralyzing her in fear. Eventually, she overcame the shock and shattered the silence. "A Grimm dragon? But that... that's not possible. Grimm Dragons went extinct ages ago!"

"That is what I thought, but it seems we were both wrong."

Sienna breathed to calm herself and thought to herself silently for a moment or two. "By now, Adam and his forces had to have fled the city." She groaned. "Looks like I have no choice but to go after him and interrogate him myself."

"Do you wish to have any accompaniment? It is a long journey to Vale."

"I appreciate the concern, Maura, but it won't be necessary."

Maura nodded in understanding. "As you wish. Do you wish to stay here for the night? I can only imagine how tired you are from your travels."

"Sure. That would be lovely."

"I shall have arrangements made immediately. Would you like some tea while you wait?"

"Yes, please. Do you have any Jasmine? You know it's my favorite."

She smiled. "You're in luck. I just got a lot of it. I'll be right back."

Maura left the room and Sienna took a seat on the sofa. As she sat there, she took some time to try and gather her thoughts.

 _Honestly, Adam Taurus, what were you thinking? Attacking Beacon Academy, working with humans, what is the meaning of this?_ She internally groaned. _When I find you, you are in a lot of trouble. Now for the real question- what should I do to him?_

A few minutes later, Maura returned carrying a silver tray with a teapot and a few cups in her hand. She set the tray down, gingerly held the teapot by the handle and poured a cup for herself and for Sienna. When she was done, she handed a cup to Sienna before grabbing the cup she prepared for herself. Sienna gently blew on it to cool it down and took a small sip.

"How is it?"

"Delicious, as always." Sienna crossed her legs and took another sip. "I must admit, I'm surprised at your level of hospitality. Not many leaders would go out of their way to make tea for me to drink."

Maura sighed. "You're not just a fellow Faunus, Sienna. You're more than the High Leader. You're one of my closest friends and you're the only one who addresses me by my first name."

"Really? I never knew that." She took another sip before continuing. "But seriously, you're my best friend and closest confidant. What would I do without you?"


	12. Already Over

"All aboard!"

Blake walked up the metal ramp to the passenger ship. She was one of the first to board the vessel, as she arrived quite early. She was amazed she was able to get a ticket so quickly and for such a cheap price.

The salty sea air rose from the ocean and drifted to the deck as the clouds gathered in the sky, blocking out the sun. A cool but not bone-chilling breeze blew over the deck playing with her loose and messy hair. While the sky looked gloomy, the weather was tolerable. It was early morning, at around 8 o'clock or so, and Blake had not slept well the previous night. She had a hard time falling asleep, then she woke up to a nightmare and went back to sleep before being woken up with the sun in her eyes. So after six broken up hours of sleep, she leaned her arms against the railing. The distance from Vale to Fiti wasn't very far, but ships weren't exactly the fastest mode of transportation. Unfortunately there was no airport in Fiti, so this was really her only option.

Usually boarding would take an eternity, but since there weren't that many passengers boarding the passenger ship, the vessel took off within less than two hours. As the ship took off, Blake stared into the sea and remembered how this tangled web of agony, lies, deception and darkness began...

With one word.

"Goodbye."

That was her only word to Adam Taurus as she cut the connecting beam between the train cars and cut him and the White Fang out of her life. She put her weapon on her back as her train cart moved forward as Adam's cabin seemed to fall back. She continued to look back at him as she drifted farther away until he was a blurred outline and eventually she couldn't see him at all. Then she turned away and leapt off the train, jumping through the trees of the Forever Fall forest. As she leapt from tree to tree, she made sure not to be seen by anyone, especially by the members of the White Fang. With only her weapon, 10,000 Lien (that she stole from the White Fang), 150 Lien of her own, a debit card (with some hundred Lien in her account that was set aside for emergencies), some books, a suitcase of clothes and care products, some MREs, a canteen of drinking water and other tools, she was all alone and had nowhere to go.

What's a catgirl to do?

As she reached the end of the forest and got to the city, she started to formulate a plan.

 _First things first, I need to find somewhere to stay. A homeless shelter would be cheap, but I should probably try to avoid one if at all possible. Maybe there's a cheap motel or something nearby._

She walked around the city, examining her surroundings. As she walked through the city, her eyes came across a poster with a picture of Beacon Academy. The words read, _Looking to change the world for the better? Have very high skills in combat? Then send in your transcript to Beacon Academy today!_

Blake knew she needed a new plan, but the first thing she had to do was find a place to stay, even if it wasn't overnight. Eventually, after walking around for a few blocks she saw a public library not far from the docks called Southwest Vale Public Library. The exterior of the building was three stories tall, with the largest space being the first floor. From the entrance, she could see the white carpeting along the sky blue walls. Seemed warm and inviting. She went inside and went through the halls until she reached an area where teenage and adult fiction was kept. She grabbed a random book off the shelf and sat down, pretending to read while gathering her thoughts.

 _Well, I've left the White Fang. I'm a criminal hiding in plain sight. I really have few options here; Go back home, try to figure out my place in the world, become a runaway and move from place to place or stay here. I should probably run, but even if I run, they could still find me. The White Fang are everywhere. There's no continent I can hide. Trying to live on a deserted island wouldn't work. Also, what would I do if I decide to stay here? Not to mention Adam may try to pursue me. If he finds me, what will he do? Execute me? Or worse? Can I really hide myself from the White Fang and my past with this one little black bow?_

She closed the book and sighed, before her eyes turned to a pair of teenagers. The first one was a young man with black hair in a ponytail and a bubbly orange haired young woman. The bubbly girl's expression shifted from bubbly to annoyed.

"Another library?" the girl asked. "What are we possibly going to do here aside from reading books?"

"Well, actually, I was thinking of having us apply to Beacon Academy to become professional hunters." the boy answered.

The girl gave him a strange look. "Why would we do that?"

The boy counted the reasons on his fingers. "Well, for starters, we've been training for years, both with real experience and the aid of professional huntsmen and huntresses. We wouldn't be running around, fighting to survive like we have been for years. And since we're both orphans, we can apply for the Kinney-Veto scholarship, and get all four years for free. So really, what do we have to lose?"

She smiled. "You make a good point. Well then, let's do it."

"We better get to work." he said, sitting down at a computer. "These transcripts aren't going to make themselves."

The girl followed his lead. Blake got up, took her book, and went to a computer a few rows behind the orphaned duo, watching them as they created their transcripts so she knew what to do. She started working as they did. As the hour went by, the three future hunters in training were preparing for the future. As Blake was getting close to finishing her transcript, the printer printed out their transcripts, first the boy's, and the girl's.

"Well then, Beacon Academy, here we come!" the girl cheered.

"Not so loud, Nora."

"Aw, Ren, you're no fun."

Looking back on it, that was actually the first time Blake had seen Ren and Nora. Eventually, she finished her transcript and printed it. She then got a membership to the library, checked out the book she found earlier, called _Violet's Garden_ , left the library and delivered her transcript to Beacon Academy, as well as applying for any scholarships. When she was done, she ate an MRE and thought to herself.

 _Well, I know where I'm going. Well, assuming they accept me. But why wouldn't they? I'm qualified, even if I never studied at a combat school. I probably should write a letter to my parents, although.. maybe I should have all my ducks in a row before I send a message.  
_

After returning to the library and staying there for a few more hours, she checked into the nearest motel.

A few days later, she got an email confirming that she was qualified to attend and informing her that she must pass the entrance exam. They didn't give too many details on what the entrance exam was, but Blake was sure she could handle it. And of course three days later, she passed the exam with flying colors. The day after her entrance exam, she sat down in her room, took a piece of parchment paper and a pen and began to write.

 _Dear Mom and Dad,_

 _I can only pray that this message will get to you. Messages by hand aren't exactly the most reliable, but considering that I am writing to you from Vale and Menagerie doesn't have a CCT tower like the kingdoms, I don't have much choice. Dad, you were right, I should have left the White Fang with you and mom. Although Sienna Khan isn't necessarily trying to exterminate the human race, the White Fang's violent tendencies have gotten out of hand. Ever since Sienna Khan took your place as high leader, things really have gotten a lot worse. It's not entirely her fault though._ _Adam Taurus has taken Sienna Khan's advice way too far._ _I only realized this when I hid an alleyway in the city of Kuchinashi_ _as the White Fang stole_ _dust shipments and fought the guards. Seeing the White Fang brutally kill innocent people, even those that weren't directly involved in combat, made me finally realize that this was morally wrong. Therefore, I have ultimately chosen to leave the White Fang.  
_

 _And that's not the only thing I realized when I stepped back. You know how Adam's been my closest friend since basically forever and you remember the last time I was at home, I told you about how we started a romantic relationship? Well... things haven't been going very well. It's been close to a year since I got together with him, and everything was perfect for roughly three months. Then it slowly got worse over time. He began to yell at me whenever something went wrong, then we both got into heated arguments. About six months in, he started to physically abuse me, even though I didn't realize it at the time. Sometimes he slapped me, then tried to apologize and make up for it with shiny material possessions, flowers or soothing words. The first time I was really angry at him and didn't speak to him for a week, but overtime, I began to think it was normal. While I was hiding in the Kuchinashi alley, I saw a homeless young woman who had been abused by her former lover, and her story reminded me of what Adam was doing to me, emotionally hurting and manipulating me. So after a year of dating him, I dumped him by leaving him in more ways than one. And while he may have hurt me, I'm glad that he didn't try to...  
_

She crossed out the words 'I'm glad that he didn't try to...' and mused to herself on how to phrase her statement better.

 _it was not as bad as it could have been._

 _So here I am, writing to you in a motel in the city of Vale wearing a black bow over my cat ears to hide my history and heritage. S_ _ecretly, I'm scared. I'm horrified that eventually, Adam Taurus could find me or that my past will be revealed._ _Since I don't want to use my skills to aid in the White Fang's violence, I have also decided to enroll in Beacon Academy and dedicate my skills to becoming a huntress. Maybe one day, I'll be able to make things better for all Faunus around the world. To me, the White Fang don't seem to be extremely evil like many believe. They're really just misguided. Adam is probably the most misguided of them all. Maybe some day, I'll find him and try to talk him out of it. But for now, I'm just going to lay low and be sure that no one finds out what I am, or who I once was. That seems to the smartest move I can make at this present moment. If you can, please write back and send the letter to Beacon Academy. I miss you guys. I love you mom and dad, stay safe._

 _Your loving daughter, Blake  
_

She grabbed an envelope, wrote down the correct addresses in their respective places, put a stamp on the upper right corner, folded up the letter, and put it in there before sealing the envelope. She secretly hired a messenger, who charged her 25 Lien and swiftly left to deliver the message. The catgirl then remembered arriving at Beacon on the first day, the day before initiation. She sighed and tried to smile before going into the fray.

 _As one door closes, another one opens..._

Blake then came back to reality, her eyelids dropped heavily. She got her arms up from the railing and yawned, so she decided it would probably be a good idea to take a nap. She went down the metal steps to the first floor below the deck and walked through the hallways until she found a navy blue door with the number 22 in big black font on a white place of plastic glued onto its front. She got out her key and unlocked the door. The girl entered her cabin, a little room with an empty closed chest and two twin beds with ocean blue bedspread, each on opposite sides of the room. In the upper left corner was a small bathroom. She bought the cheapest possible cabin on board the ship, which was slightly better than she thought it would be. The entire area, including the bathroom had been neatly cleaned and the area was wide enough for pacing, even though this behavior was unusual for her. Still, she remembered having worse accommodations.

Looking out the window, she saw nothing but the sea for miles ahead. It would be quite a while before the boat would dock at Fiti. She set her stuff down and curled up underneath the sheets, turning to her left side as she tried to fall asleep. Yet as she tried to fall asleep, the image of a certain Faunus came to mind. Not the image of the one she was trying to bring down, but instead the one she turned down; his golden hair shining like the sun along with his tail, his grey-blue eyes, his kind yet mischievous demeanor... Sun Wukong... Why was she thinking of him? She laid on her back and slammed her fist against the mattress, trying to shove those feelings to the back of her mind and soul, but it was no use. Guilt and sorrow ate at her. She believed she shouldn't want him, as she turned him down, but it did nothing to soothe her soul. She knew the old saying; Meeting someone was chance, becoming friends was a choice, but falling in love with someone was beyond her control.

She sighed and turned onto her side again. Within less than two years Blake broke three hearts; the first man she ever loved, the one she rejected on the rooftop, and her own. She sobbed softly to herself. Was it possible to break your own heart? She believed so. For a brief moment, she wished that Sun was there with her, trying to comfort her. But she knew such desires were impossible. She left him in the dust and she figured that by now he'd be on an airship back to Haven Academy. At least if she had to wrestle with the negative emotions, she was able to do it where no one could see her like this. She wiped away her tears and slowly drifted to sleep as she recalled their last moments together before she left him heartbroken.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Vale, a man sat on a throne in a lonely room. The room was a long hallway with black walls in the background while white marble pillars held up a red ceiling. The black title stretched from the black and crimson doors to the red carpet where the throne was. The throne was made of darkened wood with black velvet cushioning. The man slammed down his fist on the right arm of the throne.

Adam Taurus remembered how Blake left him. He had just defeated the spider drone and had seen Blake standing on the other train car with her weapon in hand and was about to say something, but he never got the chance.

"Goodbye."

She cut off the link between the train cars and watched as the other car moved forward. He was too stunned for words, and he watched until Blake faded away. He groaned and went back to the cart with the cargo. The mission to steal the dust from the Schnee Dust Company was a success, but blowing up the train afterwards was a failure. Adam and the white Fang agents went back to the camp site in the Forever Fall forest. As the White Fang workers moved boxes of dust vials from one place to another, he went back to his quarters and started punching his pillow with his fists. He couldn't think; all he felt was anger.

Eventually, after doing this for a solid hour, he had exhausted all his aura and tears came streaming down his face. He took off his mask and tried to think as his negative thoughts began to swarm his mind.

 _How could she? How could she do this?! How could she forsake the cause she has fought for her entire life? How could she forsake me?!_

The lieutenant answered his room, interrupting his thoughts. "Sir, is something wrong?"

He put his mask back on, but did not look at the lieutenant. "Blake Belladonna has run away. She left me and sabotaged the plan to kill the workers on the train."

"Treason. We'll find her and execute her immediately."

"No!" He screamed. "Don't execute her." He balled up his fist. "Don't even think about hurting her. I will deal with her myself."

"As you wish, master."

He swiftly left, leaving the man to his thoughts.

 _Maybe... maybe I'm overreacting. She's vanished before... Maybe she'll come back._

Of course, she didn't. Three days later, Adam Taurus and his trusted lieutenant were at the forever Fall encampment.

"Blake's been gone for three days. It's official. She has betrayed us."

"We'll find her, sir." He held his hand to his chest. "I swear on my life.

"Forget it. It's time I return to Mistral and ask for Maura's aid in attacking Haven Academy." is what he would have said to him, had he not heard the sounds of conflict and then was bribed/blackmailed into working with Cinder and her associates.

His plans had been slightly changed, but his goal remained the same. The bull-horned faunus thought out his next move.

 _With the fall of Beacon Academy, it's high time that I..._

He was snapped out of his thoughts when a White Fang messenger came bursting through the door.

"Master Taurus, we've got a potential problem. I have received intel from White Fang agents and High Leader Sienna Khan is on her way here!"

 _Oh great. Fan-fucking tastic..._

Adam remained silent for a moment, pondering what to respond with. "This is most unusual for her. I suppose I better prepare myself for the worst then." He groaned under his breath. "Oh, this won't be fun..."

The messenger gave the leader a concerned look, almost like he was going to bite his nails. "You think it'll be that bad, sir?"

"Oh, I know that it will be bad." he answered. "If Sienna herself is going through all this trouble to confront me, whatever she wants can't be good... or trouble-free."


	13. Bad Company

"I can't believe that my club has gotten destroyed again." Junior sighed. "Maybe I should just move my business elsewhere..."

Hei "Junior" Xiong felt like all his good luck had run out. First he was interrogated (and tortured) by a blonde brawler, his club got partially smashed and got beaten up by said brawler. Then, almost a year later, a black-bowed battler showed up, started a huge fight with Neo, and destroyed his entire club in the process. So now, he was close to broke, had only three henchmen left as well as the Malachite sisters and had lost almost everything. He wondered whether it would be better for him to stay or leave this nearly abandoned city.

"What now?" one of the henchmen asked.

"I don't know." he answered. "It feels like everything's been ripped from me."

Suddenly a blond-haired faunus ran up to them. "Hey um, excuse me, but have you seen this girl?" Sun held up a picture on his scroll; a photo of Blake sitting down on a chair with her legs crossed and a book in her hand. "I'm trying to find and aid her."

He waved his arms in exasperation. "That girl? Are you crazy?! She's dangerous!"

Sun raised an eyebrow. "Dangerous? What are you...?"

His face turned sour. "She ended up destroying my club while trying to interrogate someone for answers."

"Why would she- Never mind that. Where did she go? What became of her?!"

"The cops let her go!" He punched the nearest wall, before taking his bruised knuckle back in pain and groaning. "They really should have arrested her..." He held his knuckle with the palm of his left hand. "But I don't know where she disappeared off to."

"I heard her say to one of the cops that she was going to Fiti for whatever reason." Melanie answered.

"I know there's also a boat for Fiti leaving pretty soon." Miltia added.

"If he hurries up, he might be able to catch it and hitch a ride." another one of Junior's henchmen chimed in.

Sun immediately sprinted off desperately trying to find the boat before it left the harbor, running through the city. He didn't even pay much attention to his surroundings and how parts of the city were destroyed, but he didn't really care. Sun Wukong had more pressing matters. By the time he got to the docks, the boat had already taken off. He could even faintly see the boat in the distance for a few seconds until he couldn't see it at all.

"Ah, damn it. Now what?"

He thought of trying to swim to the boat, but he knew he wouldn't be able to catch up with it. He couldn't afford to wait for the next one. He looked around and saw something out the corner of his eye, getting another idea. He ran down the wooden walkway to the loading area and grabbed some oars, rope and a lifesaver and jumped into a raft. He untied the rope around the raft and started paddling.

 _Sun, you are fucking insane._ He mentally told himself. _Then again, this is not the first time I've gone off the rails!_

* * *

Later that morning, Ren and Nora had just finished breakfast in the absence of their two teammates.

Nora put her plate and silverware into the dishwasher. "Hey, where are Jaune and Pyrrha?"

Ren answered, "Probably still asleep."

"Should we wake them up?"

Ren sighed. "We might as well."

The two went to their room and softly knocked on the door. They slowly pried it opened after receiving no response.

"Helloooo?" Nora called out. "Are you awake?"

Jaune and Pyrrha were still asleep, a single sheet covering their naked bodies. Jaune slowly woke up, and sat up on the bed, revealing his hickey to his teammates. "Uh..."

Pyrrha slowly stirred, yawning as she opened her eyes. "Em?"

Nora gasped. She and Ren were both left speechless.

"Oh..." Nora said, losing her train of thought.

The couple's faces turned as red as Pyrrha's hair.

"I'm sorry, we'll just be leaving now." Ren said. They walked out of their room and shut the door. Ren was speechless for a moment. "I can't believe it. They really did it.."

Nora shrugged it off. "It was bound to happen eventually."

"Come, we should probably leave them." Ren said, going back to the kitchen with Nora in tow.

Back in the master bedroom, Jaune and Pyrrha were sitting apart on the bed, Pyrrha still covered within the sheets. Jaune then got up and started to get dressed, his face still red as he put on his underpants, followed by his jeans.

"Well... That was humiliating." He sighed, putting his pants on. "Why doesn't this door have a lock?"

"I can't answer that. I should probably get dressed and try to present myself with my dignity intact."

Jaune scratched the back of his head. "Can we really even do that considering that they just saw both of us nude and know the events that occurred last night?"

She smiled sheepishly, giggling for a moment or two. "We can certainly try."

* * *

The skies were still gloomy around the city, as if a shadow had fallen over the land and refused to leave. A crow flew through the city, seeing Glynda Goodwitch trying to repair broken structures with her semblance, only for them crumble apart again. She sighed and put her hand to her forehead. It was obvious to tell that her Semblance was being overtaxed, but to what extent, the bird did not know. There was nothing he could do to aid her, so he moved along.

The bird made it to the outer edge of Beacon Academy before flying past the walkway, through the courtyard crawling with Grimm and to a room that was partially in ruins before making it to a secret room on the first floor. The bird assumed its human form of Qrow Branwen again and he checked to see that he wasn't being followed.

He slid back a desk, revealing a trapdoor underneath it. He opened that door and went down to the cellar. The cellar consisted of a wipe open space with a bunch of storage space was little light here. As he walked through the cellar, he eventually came to the end of the cellar with doors leading to two different stone stairways. He went down the one on his right and descended the long stone spiral-shaped staircase. Using the light from the torches that still burned, he carefully placed one foot in front of the other. Despite his caution, he still somehow tripped and tumbled all the way down the stairs, screaming and cursing as he did so.

When he finally reached the bottom, he had gotten one or two bruises on his face, but nothing was broken. He groaned. "I should have known. Just when I think things are getting better, suddenly something bad happens." He stood up and opened the door, entering the Beacon Vault. He saw most of the lights were out, save for one. He looked around and saw nothing there but Amber's dead body and a cluster of ashes scattered on the floor along with Ozpin's cane.

Qrow sighed and looked down, crestfallen. He took out his flask and drank all of the liquor in it. "Ozpin, how many times must you die before this madness comes to an end?" There was no answer, but he didn't expect one either. He was talking to empty air. He picked up Ozpin's cane. "I don't know when you'll be back, but whenever you can, come find me as soon as possible. I'll be waiting."

He stood up and took one last look at the vault, only to notice Amber's corpse in the metal pod, the arrow that killed her still embedded in her chest. He sighed.

"Now for the real question... What to do with Amber's corpse, if anything?"

* * *

Jaune looked at the to-do list he had written out as he and Pyrrha started making their way back to the JNPR apartment. The sounds of the sword skirt could be heard around him as they moved along. He took a pen and make check-marks next to each item as he spoke. "Alright. Get my scroll fixed, check. Help Pyrrha acquire a temporary weapon. Check. Retrieve remains of Milo and Akouo from Beacon Academy. Check. Retrieve the pieces of the broken shield of Crocea Mors. Check. Get my shield and Pyrrha's spear repaired. Check. Looks like everything's been accomplished."

"What about discarding the old overly-large sword sheath you found after battling the Grimm?"

"I was thinking that I'll keep it. Maybe it'll come in handy one day."

The two entered the apartment complex. Pyrrha smiled nervously. "Seems like everything's going pretty well. Or as well as it can be in the aftermath of Beacon's fall..."

"Yeah. Everything will be alright."

As the two walked up the stairs to their apartment, Pyrrha followed slightly behind him and sadly looked away.

 _But we can't stay here forever..._ she reminded herself.

The two entered the complex to find Nora on the couch with her headphones around her neck and Ren sighed as he looked over a piece of paper.

"It feels like I should have seen this coming, but yet, I didn't..."

"Ren? What's the matter?" Jaune asked.

"I got bad news for ya guys. Our landlord's increasing our rent. He's doing this to everyone since many of the residents have packed their bags and left this city. I've done the math and we don't have anywhere near enough to continue staying here another week."

"How many days do we have left here?" Pyrrha asked.

"According to the notice, the rent increase will take place starting next week."

"So we only have three days left here..."

"Unfortunately..." Ren confirmed.

"Even then... we can't stay here forever." Pyrrha was downcast. "I hate to say it, but with the fall of Beacon Academy, there's nothing here left for us. We have no reason to stay here."

"But what about us?" Jaune began to ask her. "The team? You and I?"

His words tugged at her heart, but she said nothing, turning away and folding her arms instead of looking at him.

"Yes, this situation is most troubling. Nora, get the map." Ren ordered.

She got out a big piece of paper that was folded into four square sections. She unfolded it and showed it to Ren. He held onto it with one hand as Nora held it with the other and they looked over the map together.

Jaune and Pyrrha looked over their shoulders. "What's with the map?" Pyrrha asked.

"You might not be aware of this, but in the years before Beacon Academy, me and Nora traveled the world, trying to find a place we could call our forever home. While traveling the world, we created these small safe havens we call safehouses. We have several of them all over the world, at least seven in every kingdom, and there's even one in Menagerie." Jaune gave him a strange look. "It's a long story. These green X's mark the location of a shelter that we set up in the past. Sometimes they're camouflaged shelters we built ourselves, sometimes they're tree houses, other times they are abandoned buildings like log cabins, all kinds of temporary hiding places. So Nora, any preference as to where we will go?"

"Not sure. I was thinking somewhere with warm weather..."

"Let's see..." Ren examined the lower right corner of the map. "Shelters in places with warm weather... There's the one in Menagerie, which is really far away... Some in various parts of Mistral... How about the tree house on the outskirts of Fiti? It was recently built, not horribly far from where we are now, and it's pretty nice this time of year."

"That works."

"Then that's where we'll go."

Jaune looked away. He didn't even think about it until now, but Ren and Pyrrha had a point. There was no reason for them to stay here, no point in staying together. Beacon Academy was in tatters, and most of the students they knew had already left to go back home or to go apply at another academy. Many of the residents had fled as well. Others were not so fortunate; The death toll was confirmed to be over 5,500, and that number was still increasing. There were over 10,000 injures, and most victims were still in recovery. Within less than two weeks, the population had dropped from several million to several thousands. The future team JNPR (and almost everyone else for the matter) all foresaw was destroyed along the academy, and there was no reason to stay here.

But the young Arc didn't want to leave. He didn't want Pyrrha to leave. He almost lost her, how could he let her go?

* * *

Several hours had passed, and Sun was stranded in the ocean. The sun was setting and his stomach growled loudly. He lost track of the boat within the first hour of rowing and by this point, he had lost all his oars to whales. He was lucky that he didn't get swallowed. The monkey faunus shifted from leaning over the edge of the raft to lying down on the surface of the float on his back. He was exhausted, starving and in no shape to continue or get anywhere. Even worse was that he had no idea where he was, or how far he was from Fiti.

"I am a horrible castaway. I probably should have just stowed away on the next boat." he said to himself.

He recalled how he got into this situation; chasing after Blake, whom was probably close to Fiti's docks by now. How long the voyage actually took, Sun had no idea. But he couldn't help Blake if he failed to save himself. He needed time to recover. He reached for a water bottle he found and cleaned earlier, and took a few sips. He groaned, as this crazy stunt was proof that he was a fool.

"Maybe I should have asked my team for help." He paused to himself. "Oh wait, Neptune wouldn't be very helpful with his hydrophobia. Although Scarlet and Sage might have been able to help me find a way out of this or maybe even convince me that this was a bad idea in the first place."

He imagined what his teammates would say if they were present;

 _Neptune: (curled up in a ball,_ _whimpering and cowering_ _)_

 _Scarlet: Anyone got any ideas on how to get to Fiti from here?_

 _Sage: (glaring at_ _Sun) Sun, this was a bad idea!_

 _Sun: Yeah, I know..._

Or perhaps they would have reached Fiti faster if Sage and Scarlet helped. (He theorized that Neptune wouldn't do anything because of his harrowing fear of the water.) The former leader of team SSSN sighed to himself as he came out of his imaginary vision. He thought of using his staff, but if the lost it, he'd be defenseless.

He sighed. "Well, it's not like it can get much worse..."

At that moment, a schooner appeared out of nowhere only 15 feet from Sun's raft. A woman standing at the bow smirked maliciously as she collapsed the telescope.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" she asked.

"Looks like a filthy Faunus castaway!" one of the men aboard shouted.

"Get him!" the woman commanded.

 _Oh shit..._

The schooner approached him and he got out his staff. "Just my luck." He sighed. "I spoke too soon."


	14. You Try But You Can't Reach Me

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys and girls, guess what? !_! It's the most wonderful time of the year! !_! (That was an imitation of music notes, which I don't think is very good...) Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I got you a little present; another chapter of action, adventure and more lemons! This time the lemons are in the last section! (This is probably going to be the last one... for now... Hehe...) You can either read from the beginning and throughout the entire chapter, or you can stop after the third section where a certain faunus battles a no-good captain.

-Either way, enjoy!

* * *

Sun Wukong was in deep trouble. As the schooner approached his little raft, he knew there was no avoiding combat. He had little idea of what he was up against, but he knew one thing; they were either going to torture him, or kill him. Just one look at the crew, and he knew exactly what they were; Supremacists. He had never faced very much discrimination in his life, but whenever he did encounter them, things almost always ended badly, either for them or for Sun.

"Just my luck. I spoke too soon." He looked again at the captain of the ship and gasped. "Wait a second!" He pointed at the captain, who was not merely a captain. "I know you! You're Admiral Noire, leader of the Noire Armada!"

"So ye know of me name?" the captain-admiral spoke. "Then you already know that you're as good as dead!"

Admiral Corvina Noire was a tall woman with ocean blue eyes, pale skin and long black wavy hair. She wore black trousers with a dark grey belt paired with a black and white doublet. For accessories, she adorned a pearl necklace, golden hoop earrings and sported a white bandana barely visible under her a black pirate tricorn hat. She almost looked like Blake, that is, if Blake was a human and bloodthirsty for faunus carnage.

Sun remembered hearing rumors of the Noire Armada during his time in Vale, but never really believed them much. He remembered the story he was told by an old fisherman; Five years ago, when the White Fang became radical and started doing violent actions, the Noire Armada rose up as a group to stop them. But as time went on, they went from hunting down the White Fang to the desire to exterminate all Faunus. They sailed the seas to avoid capture and attacked minor ships and rafts with Faunus on them, sometimes even passenger or cruise ships if they coordinated a mass attack. The leader was a woman named Corvina Noire, who transferred from one ship to another to evade the authorities. No one knew what she looked like, because it was said that no Faunus ever escaped from her grasp, or from the Noire Armada.

Sun never believed it to be true. Yet now, as he stood before the very founder and admiral of the Noire Armada, he knew it was true without a shadow of doubt.

"What's the matter?" she mockingly asked, breaking the silence. "Are you scared?" She laughed at him menacingly. "Well, you should be."

He shook his fists in exaggeration. "How can you do this!? How can you take so many lives and be proud of it?"

Noire dismissed him. "Oh come on. Don't you know that Faunus are a menace to humanity? They're nothing but a bunch of pests to be exterminated." She glared at him. "Surrender quietly, and your death will be swift and painless."

"You're the one who's a menace!" the monkey faunus retorted. He ran forward and launched himself onto the ship, and taunted her a smug look. "If you want me, then come and get me!"

"Off with his head!" Corvina commanded.

Sun took his weapon, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, and spun his staff 360 degrees, knocking her crew members down. As the band of pirates with swords came towards him, he slightly lowered his staff before spinning it again, disarming the opponents before finishing them with a kick or punch to the face. He divided his staff in two and converted the pieces to nunchucks. He then proceeded to use his shot-gun nunchucks and fired away at the next wave of incoming seafarers. The first wave of crew members got up again only be fired down by his shot-guns. He was knocking them down faster than they could get up!

Corvina growled. She had to do something! She looked to the starboard side of the ship, noticing the setting sun. She looked around and saw the light reflecting from a huge metal shield - one of the many trophies and spoils of war she acquired from her hunting down Faunus. She smirked and grabbed the shield before angling it to make the light from the sunset reflect directly to his eyes.

"Aurgh! My eyes!"

"Get him now!"

Sun ducked below to evade capture, doing a low roundhouse kick to send the sailors tumbling to the ground. Noire readjusted the shield in another attempt to blind him. Sun groaned as he shielded his eyes; He needed a plan to get the shield away from her so he could finish off her sailors. He looked around the ship and saw a cord of rope and an empty glass bottle nearby a barrel. He dashed and grabbed the supplies, then used the rope to hold himself up the mast before throwing the glass bottle at her, and jumping over to her, kicking her in the face as he landed on the ground. She seemed to be unconscious from that one blow, but he couldn't really tell.

"Hey, you! Nobody hurts the captain!" one of the crewmen exclaimed.

Sun sighed as more mariners came his way. "How many of these guys are there?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, a raven flew through the sky and turned to her human form. Raven Branwen donned her mask before taking her sword and slicing the air, creating a portal. She stepped through the portal and came to a tent on the other side, where Vernal was waiting there for her. She took her mask off and looked at her right hand woman.

"Lady Raven, you have returned!" Vernal respectfully bowed her head to the leader of the Branwen Tribe. "What took you so long?"

"I was searching for another village to raid." Raven answered. "It looks like Oniyuri has been completely abandoned. It'll be easier to take from them."

"Are you sure it wasn't something else? You were gone for two days."

She set her mask down on the table and sat down adjacent to her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, when you left, you had this distressed worried look on your face."

Raven sighed. "You know I am always distressed."

Vernal looked at her lady, hesitant. "Is it... her?"

"No, although that does linger in the back of my mind."

As Raven poured cups of tea for both of them, Vernal asked, "Do you really believe that you could avoid her for the rest of your life?"

"I don't know," She sipped the tea carefully, trying not to burn her tongue. She set the teacup down. "but I have to try."

"And even then, when you meet the end of your days, who will take the mantle of Spring Maiden?"

Vernal drank as Raven answered, "Someone random. I know it's not the wisest decision, but I can't think of anyone worthy who I could endanger and forgive myself for it. I'll just have to think of my brother on my death-bed. He won't inherit the power anyway."

"What about your daughter?" she asked, continuing to prod her for answers.

Raven eyes looked sorrowful as she turned away and folded her arms. "I told myself that I'd never place the burden on her shoulders. Also..." She paused, hesitant to continue, but did so after a few seconds of silence. "she's in no shape to try and master the powers." She softly added, "Or to fight."

Vernal rose an eyebrow. "No shape to fight? What happened to her?"

"It's not good, I'll tell you that."

"She's not dead, is she?"

"No, but..." She sighed, turning back to her. "she isn't exactly in tip-top shape either."

"Broken bones? Comatose?"

"Worse and even worse."

Vernal shrugged. "I got nothing."

"She lost most of her right arm."

The right-hand gasped in horror, almost choking on her tea. "Wha... how'd that happen?"

The spring maiden sighed. "I don't know. I'm completely in the dark about the Fall of Beacon, the huntsmen academy she attended."

Vernal thought to herself, and spoke carefully. "Do you... want to know more about the attack... on Beacon?"

Raven groaned. "Part of me wants to seek answers, yet if I do, I may be dragged into the impossible war again. You'd be at risk."

"I'm already at risk. I've been at risk ever since I agreed to become the decoy. I've already taken a pseudonym, told a fake story about my 'powers' to the tribe, and heard how Ozpin's greatest foe is an immortal goddess of darkness. Also, war with _her_ may be unavoidable. I have a bad feeling we'll be dragged into the war again... whether we like it or not."

Raven didn't want to admit it, but she feared that Vernal could be right.

* * *

Back at the Noire Schooner, Sun was still fighting no-good scallywags. He kicked the last of them down, knocking them all completely unconscious.

"Ha-ha! Who's next?!"

He then received a swift kick to the face by Noire herself, knocking his staff across the deck as Corvina Noire approached him.

"You know the old saying Noire," she said to herself. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!"

She got out two cutlass swords from her belt and charged towards him, slashing her sword like an X in an attempt to get him in the chest. Fortunately, Sun swiftly dodged and started to run, trying to think of a strategy while retrieving his weapon.

 _This isn't good... She seems tougher than she looks! What would Sage do in a time like this?  
_

He retrieved his weapon and continued the fight, his staff pieces clashing against her swords, before he locked them in a X to defend himself.

Corvina moved forward, attempting to step on his toes to distract him. "Give up, monkeyman!"

Sun saw through her plan and resisted. "Never!"

He pushed forward, knocking her back and causing her fall back-first onto the deck. He swiftly connected the staff pieces together and attempted to pin her down, only for her to roll out of the way. She stood up as Sun charged towards her and parried his attack. As he attempted to hit her, his staff points ended up touching the wooden deck, blowing holes into the ship. Fortunately, since it was so big, it didn't sink. But she was still angry at him nonetheless. She charged towards him furiously, screaming as she did so. Sun barely managed to counter by placing his staff in front of him.

"Tell me something, monkeyman. What were you trying to gain by floating on that puny little raft?"

"I was trying to reach Fiti, to find my love, and aid her in her quest!"

She smiled, giving a creepy grin that was quite unsettling. "Aw, how romantic. And how foolish."

Noire proceeded to attack him again, throwing her blades towards him, and barely dodging them by a split-second, cartwheeling into the air, landing on the upper deck. She ran after him and swatted the staff out of his hands.

This resulted in them fighting in hand-to-hand combat. They traded a series of punches before Noire cartwheeled backwards, her back inches from the mast. Sun charged towards her, and she kicked him right in the knee, kicked him down, then held his arms down with her right arm as she tried to choke him with her other hand.

"It's over!"

He kicked her off of her and swung his arms towards her. "Oh, can it, you no-good murderess!"

She growled and attempted to attack him. Sun blocked her punches with his arms and then grabbed her wrist, spun her around and kicked her in the gut, sending her flying right into the mast. She fell unconscious on impact and fell forward to the ground. After defeating Noire, Sun proceeded to tie up the thugs and store them underneath the ship before doing the same to Noire. But he came up to the deck only to realize... that she was gone! He searched the deck and the entire ship again, but she was nowhere to be found!

 _Where did she go?_ Sun asked himself. _Never mind that, I have more important matters to deal with!_

He never thought that his sailing skills would come in handy. Yet as he adjusted the sails and set course for land, he found that those skills he was taught them in handy.

 _Set course for Fiti! Don't worry, Blake Belladonna. I'll be there soon.  
_

* * *

Pyrrha sat in front of the mirror and put her hair into a ponytail. She stood up and looked herself in the mirror; She wore the same red silk thong from the first time they made love, and a red bra that was slightly too small for her. She wished she had a red or black corsage or some sexy dress to work as an opening act, but alas, her wardrobe was limited at the moment. Either way, she was bound to look sexy no matter what she wore.

 _What's taking him?_ the young girl thought to herself.

Pyrrha and Jaune agreed ahead of time to do this. After all, this was the last night that they would be able to spend together before they had to leave. Neither of them wanted to think about that though. They wanted to toss their cares aside and deal with the bitter emotions in the morning.

Jaune slowly opened the door. "Oh, hello there Jaune."

"Tell me, am I dead?" he asked her. "Because I think I'm in the presence of an angel."

"No, you're not dead." She put her hand to his face. "This angel just came down to earth."

She tackled his lips hungrily, then followed by throwing her arms around his neck. He slowly slid his arms around her waist. She broke the kiss and looked into his eyes, reflecting the blue sky color in them. He saw emeralds in her eyes, she saw sky.

"I love you, Pyrrha."

"I love you too, Jaune."

The young Arc warrior slid his hands upward and without even thinking about it, began to unclip the hooks on her bra. She gasped softly.

"Jaune? What are you...?" she began.

He looked at her hungrily, a huge smirk on his face. "I just figured I'd give you a taste of your own medicine."

She smiled and nodded. He continued to unhook her bra, letting it fall to the ground. She then helped him slip out of his shirt before tossing it to the ground. As the two continued to undress each other, they felt a rush of hormones through their bodies.

Jaune looked upon her naked form; her abundant breasts, her pink nipples sticking out, her skin and intimate area, and her hips like honey, so thick and so sweet. She looked like an angel, a goddess.

Pyrrha did the same. He was strong, lean and muscular, as if he was molded by the gods without flaw. She took in every detail, every valley and crevasse. He was hot, sexy even.

The two lovebirds were on the bed, Jaune on top of Pyrrha. Her hands rested on his chest.

"Before we get to the main course, how about a little warm up?"

He placed his mouth to her nipple and began to suckle it slowly.

"Ahh... This feels... kinda nice. You must really like me, don't you?"

He chuckled. "That my dear, I'm afraid, is an understatement."

He did the same for the other breast.

"Jaune!"

She moaned in pleasure. One moment, she was feeling a warm energy throughout her torso. She rose up to look him in the eyes and was pinned against the wall, Jaune kissing her fiercely with passion. As he broke the kiss, he looked into her eyes hungrily.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Do it Jaune!" she commanded.

He obeyed her command and skillfully positioned his manhood to her entrance. Just like before, she felt true ecstasy. The merging of souls, the most intimate act of all. When Pyrrha reached her teenage years, she had learned about love and relationships, but she didn't really believe in soulmates or true love. But yet as she felt another orgasm stir inside her like a storm, she knew that she was wrong.

She thrusted her pelvis towards him as her horniness spiked and her desire grew. They touched in each other in ways, creating pleasure that was never known to them before. He thrusted back in return, harder and faster than ever, both of them rolling around the bed, fucking into oblivion.

Eventually, they ran out of stamina and lied there only inches away from each other. As they fell asleep, Jaune clung to Pyrrha, never wanting to let her go.


	15. Goodbye, My Love

Author's Notes:

-Happy new year everyone! Good news; I got another chapter for ya! Bad news; It involves more sorrow, hurt and angst. What a bittersweet way to start the year...

-And in case you were wondering, I couldn't fit the entire chapter title in the slot, so I put in part of it and put the full title of it below. You may see this occur again.

* * *

 **Goodbye, My Love/Always Know, That I Love You So**

* * *

It was nightfall when the boat landed. Blake had been on that boat for nearly two days, well-rested and ready to face whatever threat may come her way. She looked at the docks where the boat was about to unload its passengers. She looked at her hand and imagined Sun holding hers. The catwoman remembered the Beacon Dance as one of the many preceding the Vytal Festival. She wasn't even interested at first, but after Yang pleaded and begged her to slow down, take a nap and relax, she went and had a great time. She danced with Sun and enjoyed herself. Blake wasn't entirely sure when she started to fall in love the mischievous monkey faunus, but she did know it was sometime after the dance. And she knew it by the time the doubles rounds started in the Vytal Festival.

 _But the festival was crashed... destroyed... Yang... lost her arm... and Sun doesn't know... how I feel about him._

The boat docked at the port. She breathed in and tried to shove those thoughts to the back of her mind without tearing up. She exhaled and breathed again. She had this, she could do this. She was going to find Adam Taurus, end his life and make things right.

"All ashore!" the captain cried out.

It took her a while, but once she got off the boat, she made her way to a nearby wooden kiosk with a bunch of guides. She grabbed one that had a scaled map of the city and a few other guides that might be helpful to her. Using the light, she looked at the map and noticed a small blue box of information in the lower right corner of the map. 69.17 square miles of the city, not even counting the outskirts or beyond city limits. Over 70 miles of land to cover. Groaning, she moved aside to get out of the way of visitors and tourists. As she left the beach docks, she tried to plan out her next move.

Fiti was one of the busiest cities with huge tourism profits. Not likely to have many deserted buildings where the White Fang would hide. Or worse, they could be hiding right in plain sight by masquerading as another type of business. She sighed. Fiti also had one of the lowest crime rates in the world compared to other cities, but most of the crimes caused here were done by the White Fang. Still, trying to find them by roaming around the entire city would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. She needed a plan, but what was she to do?

As she reached the main part of the city, she noted there were not a large amount of people out on the streets. She looked at her scroll and saw it was 11:50pm. Most residents and tourists were asleep or at their homes/hotels at this hour. If it weren't for the fact that she had napped a lot on the ship, she would find a rooftop to sleep on, so she joined the crowd and examined her surroundings. Many of the buildings around here were restaurants, bars, or shopping centers, many of which were closed. None of the buildings had the three vertical claw/chalk marks on them. She felt a dryness in her throat, so she reached for her water bottle and screwed off the cap only to realize... she was out of water.

 _Bugger..._

She then looked around to see if there were any open establishments. She saw one a few doors down and entered the nearest open restaurant, which much to her surprise, actually had half of its seating area taken up. The area was divided into a left and right side, with a square shaped bar table cutting the room in half, like an inner circle. There were a few small television screens around the area, many of them in the bar.

"Table for one please."

"Right this way." the hostess said.

She followed her to a circular table for two on the left side of the room.

"Your server will be with you shortly."

"Thank you."

The hostess left, leaving her to her thoughts.

 _It's more crowded than I thought, but it's not a huge issue._ She looked around and saw a big party of people leave. _Even then, I shouldn't spend too much time here. I have a mission. But how am I going to...?  
_

"Good evening." the server said, setting down a big menu on the table. "How are you tonight?"

"I'm doing fine, thanks." Blake tried not to stare, but she couldn't help but notice his tiger tail.

The waiter noticed her eyes. "Oh man..." He played with his tail, trying to get it around his waist. "I try to loop it around my waist so that no one notices. But sometimes it has a mind of its own. Even then, I work the night-shift so that I'm not seen by many people. I hope you don't feel scared or offended."

She smiled genuinely for the first time in two days. "It's alright. I don't mind at all."

"Glad to hear." He smiled. "What would you like to drink?"

"Just water, and could you bring me a pitcher of it?"

"An unusual request, but it can be done." The waiter sped off to fulfill her request. A minute or two later, he brought her a glass of water as well as a pitcher. "Here you go. One pitcher of water."

"Thank you, good sir."

As soon as he left, she got out her water bottle and filled it up.

* * *

Later that morning, after the sun rose, team JNPR packed up their bags and vacated the apartment they had stated in. They stood out in an open-air plaza with a huge circular fountain in the center not too far from the apartment complex they once called home. The sun shone dimly upon the land. Jaune thought it was ironic that the sun was visible, but he felt nothing bright or uplifting about the current situation.

"Well... it's time." Ren said.

"I can't believe it... We've reached the end..." Pyrrha sadly and solemnly spoke.

"Should we exchange addresses? So we can write letters to each other if we want to?" Jaune asked.

"That's not a bad idea." Nora agreed.

Jaune took two pieces of paper from a notebook, carefully tore them in half and got out some pens, handing a pen and half-sheet of paper to each of his teammates. They wrote each other's addresses down and folded the sheets into their pockets. Shortly afterwards, the sky turned grey as the clouds rolled in, making it seem gloomier than ever.

"Well... this is it." Jaune said, looking down. "The end of team JNPR."

"Don't remind me..." Nora groaned.

"I'm going to miss you guys." Ren said, looking down.

"Aw, come here, you!" Nora threw her arms around Pyrrha. The others joined her a big group hug, all trying to smile and not have an emotional breakdown.

"You're... kinda crushing me..." the red-head groaned.

"Oh sorry!" Nora said, letting Pyrrha go.

"Come on, Nora. We have a boat to catch." Ren briefly smiled. "Farewell my friends and good luck."

Pyrrha waved at them. "Take care!"

"Goodbye, my friends."

"Goodbye and good luck everyone!"

And so, Ren and Nora walked off side by side, their hands so close, yet so far. As they faded into the distance, Jaune thought about his own relationship with Pyrrha. Why couldn't they do that? Why couldn't they run away together?

"They're not even "together" together and yet they don't separate." Jaune mentioned.

"They've been friends since forever. All they really have is each other." Pyrrha responded. "You remember the small part of their past we were told at the noodle shop, right before we faced team BRNZ?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Man, that was so long ago... Before... everything came crashing down..." She looked at the swords around her waist, a reminder of a big promise that she had to fulfill. But how could she? Cinder Fall was extremely powerful, and Pyrrha believed she would be murdered if she attempted to face her alone again.

 _What should I do?_ she thought to herself.

Jaune looked down, crestfallen. "So, how long until your helicopter arrives to take you away to the airport to Mistral?"

"A few minutes at most."

"I... I don't want to leave."

Pyrrha looked at him forlornly. "I know you don't want to leave this place, but there's nothing here for us."

"No, it's not that." Jaune began. "It's that... I don't want to leave you! I'm scared of losing you!" He threw his arms around her. "Don't go..."

"I don't want to leave either." Pyrrha threw his arms around him and held him for a moment before looking at him. "But we have to move on. My family misses me. I bet your family probably misses you as well."

Jaune sighed. "I don't know if they would even care."

"Nobody misses you?"

"Well..." He hesitated. "That's not really true. It's just... some of my sisters doubted my ability to succeed, as well as my parents. I know I told you how my parents expected me to fail, but I never told you about what my sisters thought of my attempts to become a huntsman by enrolling at Beacon Academy."

"How many of your sisters doubted you?"

"At least two, maybe three or four. But even then, regardless of what anyone thought, I vowed to prove them wrong. And I owe you a great debt that I may never be able to repay. Thank you, for aiding me and always being there."

"Jaune, I..."

The sound of spinning blades pierced the air, interrupting her train of thought. The two lovebirds knew what it was; the sound of a helicopter landing. A few feet away from them, a helicopter landed on the ground. From the entrance of the rotorcraft came down a small staircase for Pyrrha to ascend. A door opened, showing a pilot ready to take Pyrrha away.

"Ms. Pyrrha Nikos?"

Pyrrha turned to him. "That's me."

The pilot then noticed Jaune's presence. "Hmm. I didn't realize you had someone seeing you out. I'll give you a few minutes to say your goodbyes."

"Thank you, good sir."

Jaune sighed. "There's no way to stop you from leaving, is there?"

She briefly closed her eyes and spun herself around as she answered, "I'm afraid not."

"Pyrrha... my dearest love..." He caressed her cheek. "what if I never see you again?"

"I would like to believe that fate will bring us together again, or that they might be able to fix the CCT. But..." She paused, trying to hold back tears. "fate forbid I be wrong, it was wonderful knowing you." She set her backpack down and got out two items from it before slinging it over her shoulders again. "Take these." She handed the circlet and sword to him. "The circlet to remember me by, and one of the swords of Penny to remember our fallen friend and the promise I made to her."

He took the items and put them away. "Pyrrha... I love you so much. Why is it always so hard to let go?"

"Jaune... This is so hard to say..." She paused. "Goodbye, my love. But I want you to always know, that I love you so, now and forever, no matter what may become of me." She blinked, trying to avoid crying. "Goodbye Jaune."

"Pyrrha, wait!"

He threw his arms around her and softly kissed her. Pyrrha gently kissed him back, slowly enjoying the taste of his lips. If Jaune could choose any one moment to freeze in time, this would be it. He wished that he had the power to freeze time around him, just so that he wouldn't have to let go. But he knew it was inevitable. After a long, sorrowful kiss, he let go of her and tears began to slowly fall down his face.

"It's time." He sniffed. "Adieu, ma cherie amour."

"Farewell Jaune. May the stars guide you on your journey."

And so, he stood still as Pyrrha ascended the steps into the rotorcraft, watched the staircase fold up into the helicopter, and watched it take off. As soon as the helicopter disappeared in the distance, it started to rain. The rain came crashing down, soaking him head to toe. Jaune fell to his knees and let the tears fall further down his face. How long he was there, he didn't know.

One minute he was bawling his eyes out, and the next thing he knew the rain had vanished.

"Alright..." he spoke to himself, trying to collect himself. "I've said my goodbyes, I've cried till there's no tears left, so now the question remains; where do I go from here?"

He felt cold and damp from sitting out in the rain so long. He shivered and tried to warm himself up. As he stood up and wondered the desolate city, he remembered how his parents, Roux and Azure Arc, sent him off. And he recalled what his parents looked like. Roux had fiery-orange red hair and hazel eyes. He wore reddish-orange brown clothing, all blended together to resemble autumn leaves. Azure was a tall and slender woman with long wavy ocean blue hair and bluebell eyes. She commonly wore a light blue chemise dress paired with neon blue heels. He and his parents stood at the edge of the front yard, with his sisters over by the door.

"Oh Jaune, don't worry whether or not you succeed. We'll be here for you no matter what." Azure said.

"Good luck, son." His father said to him. "You're going to need it."

His sisters came, one by one, to bid him farewell.

"Good luck, Jaune!"

"Honestly, I don't believe this will end well for you. But good luck anyway!"

"Don't worry, Jaune! Just fake it til ya make it!"

"Jaune Arc, you're an even bigger imbecile than I thought. If I were a betting woman, I'd wager that you'll be out of Beacon in two weeks or less."

"I know you're trying to become a huntsman, but you should have just agreed to take lessons from me. It would have been a smarter, safer and wiser decision."

"Don't be so mean, you two! I believe in him. Good luck, Jaune!"

"The odds are against you, but if you work hard enough, you just might pull it off. Good luck, big bro!"

"Goodbye everyone, until I see you again!" Jaune said.

"Goodbye!" they all said back.

And so, taking his baggage in hand, Jaune walked forth with his head held high, off to the loading section where the bullhead would take him to Beacon Academy.

As he returned to the present, he realized that he had nowhere else to go, and that he would have to go back home, whether he wanted to or not. And he really didn't want to.

He groaned. "I guess I better man up and face the music."

 _Now how am I going to get back home?_

He thought to himself on the situation at hand. Most of the evacuation air traffic had come to a slow point and he wasn't exactly wanting to suffer from motion sickness again. So he decided for a longer and hopefully less torturous route; going by train. He made his way to the underground train station. As he finished descending the steps, he noted three different train track lines, all of which would travel different routes. He looked around and saw a scared little girl and her mother trying to comfort her, a man shaking in fear and a woman giving him a shoulder massage and other people either boarding a train, or waiting around for one, many of them scared and emotionally lost.

 _Have people been using trains to evacuate the city?_

Jaune shoved that question to the back of his mind and made his way to the ticket booth. "One ticket to Olympia with a little roomette please."

"Name?"

"Jaune Arc."

"Is this your first time ever riding with Vale Traveling Trains?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll need your phone number."

"926-201-3111."

"Alright then. That'll be 185 Lien."

"Wow, I thought it would be over 200." he said getting out the money.

"Yeah, they're offering a discount on roomettes right now due to the recent events that happened." He handed the ticket to Jaune. "Here's your ticket. In a few minutes, you'll get a text message with a link to your digital ticket. Click on the link and take a screenshot of it in case you lose your physical copy."

"Will do. Thank you, good sir."

"Thank you and have a good journey."

Jaune got his ticket and sat around the vicinity along with everyone else. When the text came, he followed the instructions he was given earlier. As he sat there, he noticed a lone musician playing the violin and a cup of money and a sign that read, _Lost job because of Grimm invasion. Will play for food._

The young Arc didn't have much, but he gave him five lien. The musician looked sad, scared and alone. Nobody deserved to be all alone. Not in this chaos.

 _But, wait..._ his brain started to think. _I'm all alone._

The end of team JNPR, the departure Pyrrha Nikos, his first and only love, walking into an uncertain future. Jaune Arc had reached a new lowest point. (And that's saying something as he had a lot of low points in his life.) He didn't think it could get much worse.

"All aboard!"

Of course, he didn't know how wrong he was. The doors to the train opened up, allowing passengers to get in. He got up, grabbed his bags, showed his ticket to the collector and got on board. He walked around until he found the coach where he was to be seated. Luckily, it was a fairly deserted car. He set his stuff down, having two seats to himself. And as the young warrior sulked silently to himself, the train took off. He sighed and slumped back in his seat. It was going to be a _long_ ride.


	16. Visions of You

Jaune looked out the window gloomily. He was almost worried about Grimm sensing his negative emotions and finding the train, but he could not help how he had felt. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen. Best case scenario for if the Grimm came, there would be one or more professional huntsmen/huntresses on board to slay the soulless monsters. Worst case scenario, he would have to step up, fight the Grimm and risk his neck to save the passengers.

 _That seems like something Pyrrha would do..._ He sighed softly to himself. _Pyrrha..._

[cue music- Maroon 5 (or Dirty Heads version if you prefer)- Visions, first verse and chorus]

Jaune imagined himself in a warm summer valley with Pyrrha, lying across a picnic blanket. He imagined her with her eyes closed and laughing, probably at a corny joke he said to her. He remembered kissing her for the first time, and the second time.

He managed to let her go forth without him, but he couldn't let her go in his heart. Would he ever be able to let her go? And did Pyrrha feel the same way? If so, would she be able to let go of him? He looked out the window, watching the world pass by him. It seemed like the last two weeks happened in the blink of an eye. One moment he was trying to find her, the next he confessed his love for her, made love, and then the next thing he knew, his whole team was disbanded and he was on a train back home. To his family...

 _Oh god... how is my family going to handle all this bad news?_

* * *

Sun had finally arrived in Fiti. He informed the police officers of the Noire Armada criminals on the ship and then began his search for Blake. He knew he couldn't approach anyone and everyone for answers, but since he was behind, he had no idea where to even look.

"Have you seen her?"

He asked this question to random people who passed by him as he walked by. This included a man, a teenage girl, a young child, an old woman and a younger one.

"Can't say that I have."

"I'm afraid not."

A child nodded. "No."

"Nope."

A woman nodded her head. "I haven't. Sorry."

Sun sighed and slumped his back against the wall. He was getting nowhere fast. He considered going to the police, but then again, that probably wasn't the best idea. He looked at the picture of Blake on his scroll. This was all he had left of her.

 _Since she left me, and broke my heart..._

He sighed. The monkey faunus thought that some men would become twisted and corrupted if they experienced this situation. Why was he going after her when he had no chance with her? He sulked as he thought about that question. He slid to the ground and looked down. He was absolutely insane. Then again, after the crazy idea of trying to row a raft all the way to Fiti, this was not news to him.

"Are you okay?" a voice asked.

Sun looked at the tiger-tailed faunus, dressed in jeans, orange sneakers and a red jersey. "No, I'm not."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm trying to find a certain girl." He showed him the picture of Blake. "You probably haven't seen her at all."

The waiter smiled. "You're in luck. I saw her last night during the night shift where I work."

He recalled what else happened during his shift. He went back and remembered her filling up her water bottle with the liquid in the pitcher. Upon returning to her, he gave her a devilish smirk. "I will admit, I've never seen a customer take a pitcher of water to refill a water bottle. Let me guess, you're a traveling huntress, aren't you?"

"Not exactly. I was once a student at Beacon Academy. That is, before it was destroyed. Long story."

"So you're a vigilante?"

She shrugged. "I suppose I could call myself that."

"Do you know what you'd like to order?"

"No, I haven't even looked at the menu yet. Apologies for wasting your time. My mind is in multiple places at the moment."

"Hey, I got a lot of time. Things aren't exactly super fast during the night shift." He looked around, possibly looking at other tables he had to cater to. "Since I've got some spare time and only two tables to wait on, might I ask what brings you here?"

"Well, between you and me," Blake looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "I'm going after the White Fang, and the leader of Vale's branch. But I have no idea where to find them. I know there's a warehouse somewhere within or on the outskirts of the city, but trying to search for it could take forever."

"Hmm. Let me see what I can't find out. In the meantime, feel free to peruse the menu."

He swiftly left, probably to get her answers or tend to other customers.

"You ready to order?"

"Yes. I would like the surf and turf tacos."

"Excellent choice. That's always been my favorite." He finished writing down. "Alright, I have no idea where the place is located, but I do know someone who might be able to help. In the southern side of the city, there's a club named the Black Key. The manager of that place, a guy with the nickname of Senior, will tell you what you want to know, but you might have to pay him. Also, his club is hard to get access to. Sometimes, it's open to everyone, but most of the time, you have to be on the guest list or get an invitation. If you want, I can get you the address of the Black Key."

"That would be most appreciated."

He nodded and ran off. As he returned to the present, he told Sun what happened.

"Of course, just my kind of luck." He sighed, standing up. "Well, no one ever said this was going to be easy."

The waiter chuckled nervously. "Yeah, good luck getting in there."

Sun ran off, trying to find the location of the Black Key and figure out how he could meet up with Blake.

* * *

It was nighttime aboard the train. The young Arc got into his roomette, a small space about the size of a bedroom closet. The roomette had a small chair embedded into the wall, standing without legs and a small bed right next to it and a window with blinds. He set his bag on the chair, pulled the blinds down and got into his pajamas, trying to work with what little space he had. Once that was done, he covered himself with the sheets and closed his eyes. For a moment, he was still, but then he turned his head on its side and groaned to himself. He tossed and turned, trying to fall asleep, but he couldn't.

[cue Visions- second verse]

He eventually fell asleep. He didn't remember how he slipped into unconsciousness, but he did remember his dream. One minute he lied awake at night, and the next thing he knew, he was in Beacon, but it wasn't destroyed. The school remained untouched, and nothing had been broken. Nobody died, and Pyrrha had won the Vytal Festival. To celebrate, there was a feast in the cafeteria, and team JNPR sat at a table with team RWBY, team SSSN, team CFVY and Penny Polendina.

"Congratulations, Pyrrha!" Yang exclaimed.

"Congrats, girl!" Velvet cheered.

Blake smiled. "Well done."

"Well fought." Weiss said.

"I must admit, I was a bit worried for her in the first singles match, and again during the last duel, but you managed to pull it off! Bravo!" Ruby exclaimed.

"It's almost a bit unbelievable how she defeated every opponent that came her way." Scarlet added.

"But yet it's true." Coco commented. "Nicely done."

"You fought very well, friend. I am honored to have engaged in such a good fight." Penny said.

Pyrrha's face had turned red from all the compliments. "Aw, you guys are too kind."

Jaune raised a glass of fruit punch in his right hand. "Ladies and gentlemen, I purpose a toast; to Pyrrha Nikos!"

"To Pyrrha Nikos!"

They all clinked their glasses and drank. After the feast, he found Pyrrha in the hall, shifting between a neutral expression and smiling.

"I still can't believe it. It all feels surreal. As if it's just a dream."

"Pyrrha..." he began.

"Jaune..." she said at the same time.

Jaune motioned to his partner. "You first."

"I have something to say to you." She breathed in deeply. "Jaune Arc... I... I love you!"

"You do?"

She nodded sincerely. "Yes, I do. Tell me, is this all a dream?"

He slowly leaned in. "If it's a dream, then I don't want to wake up."

The two kissed, throwing their arms around each other. The dream then faded as he slowly woke up. He got up and saw where he was. He groaned and turned to his side, looking at the hand clock on the wall to the left of the door; 10:45am. He sighed. How did he sleep in so late?

 _These visions aren't leaving me... In dreams or reality, she is still in my head..._

"Will I ever get her out of my head?" he asked himself.

He got dressed and took his bag with him to his seat. This journey was going to be longer than he thought.

* * *

Emerald sat by Cinder's bedside. Nothing had changed, but she didn't expect anything to happen. She remembered what Salem told her. Still, she couldn't help but watch over her and be by her side, like a puppy looking at its dead owner. But Cinder was not dead. Comatose and injured, but not dead.

Mercury approached her, walking through the open door over to her. "Em? Are you sure you should be doing this? I get that you're worried, but you being here by her side isn't going to change anything. You know what she said..."

"I know..." She sighed. "My feelings of anxiousness may have gone down, but I'm still concerned..." She touched her hand, the one that still remained. A small blanket covered her missing arm. A black mask had been put over her missing eye. Emerald tried not to think about that, but the thoughts of her injury invaded her mind. "I just... can't believe it..."

A strong, burly man stepped in through the door. "So this is what remains of Cinder. I'm surprised she's still alive."

"Oh goody." Mercury said sarcastically. "You've returned. How did hunting for Summer turn out?"

"Nothing. It was a false lead. No summer maiden anywhere to be found. I have already been informed on Cinder's 'success', but I don't see much in the way of success here." He motioned to the comatose Cinder. "I can't fathom how she could have been so easily defeated."

Emerald sniffed. "I don't understand it either."

"So, I'm curious," Hazel began. "who was the previous fall maiden and how did you find her?"

"Her name was Amber Scarlett. According to what we were told, the Scarlett family had the powers passed down in the family line for at least three generations within a time span of 70 years. Another family knew their secret, and we managed to force it out of it him. Once we found out where she was, we had her." Mercury answered.

"Unfortunately for them, that cycle has been broken. Once the three of us found Amber and subdued her, Cinder took her power easily. That is, until the draining was interrupted by a strange man with a scythe." Emerald continued. "Later on, she assassinated her and assumed the mantle completely, but at what cost?" Emerald looked at her master again.

"Any word from Adam Taurus?"

"Nothing." Hazel answered. "But even then, wasn't he just another pawn?"

Mercury smirked, thinking about how Cinder used him to aid in her goals. "I wouldn't say so."

* * *

[cue last verse and chorus of Visions]

It was the fifth day aboard the train, and Jaune's emotional state had improved very little, if at all. Sometimes he thought he saw Pyrrha when in reality, it was just a lookalike or he saw something that wasn't even there.

He sat down at a table in the dining car, poking his bacon and eggs with a fork before sighing. "Well, it's official. I've lost my mind."

"Haven't we all?" a voice said. The voice came from an old man who was sitting at a table behind him, all alone like he was. The old man had white hair on the sides of his head and wore a business suit. "The whole world is changing right before our eyes. It's a shame I probably won't be around to see the world recover from this catastrophe, if it even recovers at all."

Jaune hung his head. He wasn't even thinking of the world around him and how it was changing. All he thought about was his disbanded team, his teammates that he parted with, especially Pyrrha. "I... I haven't thought of it much."

But how could he? How could he think of the fate of the world and what the world was becoming when he lost his teammates, his first and only love, and had to go back to face his family? He had to think. How was he going to tell them what happened? What was he going to tell them?

As the old man got up, Jaune was alone once again, leaving him to his thoughts.

 _Okay, I can't tell them about maidens, or Amber's existence as a maiden. I could tell them the fake story we told Nora and Ren and call the other stuff classified information. Yeah, that should work. Is there anything else I need to exclude?  
_

After finishing his breakfast, he took himself and his bags back to his seat. He got out a notepad, some pencils and began to write. He wrote down ideas of what to speak about and what not to speak about, all while asking himself questions.

 _Should I mention my futile attempts to impress Weiss? Should I mention my romance with Pyrrha? Probably shouldn't mention the sex. Or I could just use baseball terms. Then again, considering I made the sly, cunning, foolish and reckless decision to forge transcripts for and go to Beacon Academy without any experience or knowledge, many of them probably think I'm a huge idiot already. Forget mentioning that. I can already assume that my parents will interrogate me, and there's a very high chance of them bringing all of my sisters into this. At least some of them fully support me._

 _I never have been the brightest bulb in the socket, but I was shining brighter after I started accepting Pyrrha's help. Now it just feels like I've dimmed out. There's nothing left._

He looked at the sun, which was just starting to set. As the train traveled through the mountain range, orange and yellow hues painted the sky, almost as if one could paint it and create a beautiful picture. He didn't realize how quickly time flew by. He had thought about a lot of things over the last few hours, but as he watched the sunset, a new question came to his mind.

 _Is light everlasting? Or does it just fade away until nothing's left?_


	17. Judgement Day

The train stopped at a big train station. A certain young blonde looked away from the window and sighed. After a week of being cooped up in a little roomette, thinking of Pyrrha and his team while sitting and watching the world pass by him, Jaune Arc had finally arrived his destination. As the train came to a stop, he kissed the past goodbye and steeled himself for the worst.

"Olympia! Everyone for Olympia!" the conductor announced.

 _Well, it's time... To face my family... and my past._

He stood up with his backpack in hand. He waited for the crowd to recede, then got off the train and slumped his backpack over his shoulders. He left the train station, walking slowly and looking at the faces of people around him. He didn't see anyone he knew. It was a foolish thing to hope for, but he felt so lonely. A man with a scorpion tail braid passed him, although he didn't even notice that as he was looking in the opposite direction. As he exited the train station, he looked at the main city in front of him and turned to the hilltop and sighed. He had a long way to go before he reached the Arc family home.

* * *

It had been seven days since Pyrrha left. Due to a huge delay in the plane's departure time, and several layover stops, it had taken her a week to get to the closest city where she lived; Mistral, which had a forest to the west where her family lived in a log cabin. She had arrived at a community park in Mistral on the pathway to the Green Venom Forest, where she had lived her entire life. Once she reached the old oak tree, she walked forward away from the tree until she saw the familiar stone path and the always present sign that said in big black letters, _Keep Out!_ The gladiator girl never knew why that sign was put up, but she learned to ignore it long ago and moved on. She roamed through the forest, trying not to let her negative emotions get the better of her. But as she approached her house, she kept asking herself several questions.

 _How can I tell my family what happened? What will I tell them? Do I tell them about the Maidens, the Relics, and Ozpin's presumed death? Do I mention the involvement of Goodwitch, Ironwood and/or Branwen in safeguarding this knowledge? Or do I just tell them the partially falsified version that I told Nora and Ren? Should I really have lied to them? Why didn't I tell them the truth? Why do I feel this feeling of regret and guilt for lying to them?_

She reached the end of the path where her house stood on the right a cobblestone col-de-sac and gasped upon seeing it. "No... This can't be..."

The house was destroyed, in almost complete ruins. Around the perimeter was a huge grid line of _'Do Not Cross'_ tape, but there were no police officers or police cars anywhere to be found. Much of the wooden exterior of the house had been burned away and most of the wood that hadn't been disintegrated by the flames was charred. There was a huge hole in the roof, with wooden pieces of it not too far from the building they came from. The doorway had collapsed and the wooden stairs that led up to the door were slashed into pieces. The glass table on the right of the wooden front porch that was shaded by a huge umbrella was shattered into pieces and the umbrella had several slits into it as it laid on its side.

Although reluctant to do so, she stepped over the police tape, jumped up to the porch, walked on the door and into the house, trying to find out what happened. "Mom? Dad? Is anyone here?"

As she ventured into the house, she saw that the windows were all shattered. Many of the rooms were buried in debris and couldn't be explored, but she tried to figure out what happened. Much of the kitchen remained untouched, but the dining room table was cut in half and had it's lower left and upper right legs chopped off. She noticed something by her feet. Her eyes darted to the floor and she gasped, holding her breath in shock.

"No..." She felt tears swell up within her. "Mom... Dad..."

Her parents were dead. She saw their corpses weren't rotting away yet, so they were killed recently. Her mother had been stabbed right through the heart, a plain sword still embedded in her chest, and her father had several cuts all over his body and his skull cracked open, with a pool of blood that hadn't quite dried up yet. How long ago had they been murdered? Who did this? Where are they now? And most importantly, why did they do this? These were the questions Pyrrha asked herself as she roamed the rest of the house, trying to find a clue as to what happened.

Over in the living room, underneath a destroyed table, she saw a note that was ripped apart into several tiny pieces. She tried to gather them and see what the message said, but the pieces were so small she couldn't see how to connect them together. She sighed and dropped the minuscule pieces of paper, letting them fall to the floor. Letting the tears fall down her face, she continued to explore the ruins. She went to her room, opening the wooden door.

Her room was the only part of the cabin that was untouched. The rose colored walls were still whole, with a vertical red flower design on the left side of each wall. The walls were bare, save for a picture of Pyrrha and her family nearby the door. In the center of the room was a queen mattress atop a wooden frame. Her crimson bedspread was still nicely tucked in, showing a rose pink pillow at the head.

She searched an adjacent bedroom. This room had grey walls and a flame design made of big black lines on all of them, lined with a few pictures of family and one big poster on the right of the Pumpkin Pete's cereal box-art. The twin sized air mattress was directly on the ground, it's black and white bedspread undone, revealing part of the bare mattress. The room had jackets and hoodies all over the place, including one on top of the dresser. On top of the dresser was a bunch of various different colored gloves, each stacked into pairs.

"Ash, are you here? Ash!"

She looked around, but Ash Nikos was nowhere to be found. His weapon hasn't here either.

 _Or they could have stolen it. Where is he? Is he alright?_ Pyrrha asked herself.

She searched the rest of the house but found no sign of him, dead or alive. She sighed and tried to figure out what her next move was, and tried to table her overwhelming grief. The gladiator girl went back to her room, and grabbed some things. After taking what she could by shoving it into her backpack, she left the house. The girl looked into the sky, seeing the fading sun. It seemed all of her light and hope was fading along with it.

"I hope I can find Ash, wherever he is."

* * *

By the time Jaune arrived at the Arc family home, the sun had almost set. Twilight had come and gone as he walked up to the door. He tried the doorbell, but it didn't work. So he knocked on the door three times. A few seconds later, his father opened the door.

His father blinked in surprise upon seeing him. "Jaune? What are you doing here?"

"Hi dad. It's a long story."

"Then come inside. There's someone else who'd really like to see you." He placed his right hand to his mouth. "Oh honey, guess who's here?"

"Who would be visiting at..." She gasped upon seeing her son. "Jaune?"

He nervously waved to her. "Hi mom."

She quickly threw his arms around him. "Are you okay? Tell me you're okay!"

"I'm fine. I'm fine." he quickly answered.

"Good." She broke the hug and proceeded to glare at him and then tightly grabbed his ear. "Now what the hell were you thinking?!"

"Ow, that's my ear!" He swatted her hand away and rubbed his left ear.

She sighed, exasperated. "You've been gone for almost an entire year and you just left us in the dark! Why?!"

"I had my own problems!" he retorted. "I had to quickly learn the ropes or risk being sent home as a disgrace!" He folded his arms angrily. "You wouldn't understand."

His father looked at him sadly before breathing in and returning to a neutral expression. "Well, then. I'd say this calls for an interrogation."

"Shall we summon the girls?" Azure asked.

"I'd say they have the right to know." Roux nodded in agreement. "Let's do it."

Azure walked over to the bell nearby the entrance to the dining room, and rung it three times.

"Coming!" a voice said in a sing-song tone.

"Be right there!" two voices said in unison.

"I'll be right down!"

"Just a moment!"

"Ugh... What is it this time?!"

"Alright, hold your horses!"

As the sounds of footsteps were heard, Jaune unfolded his arms and heard some of his sisters coming down the stairs, seeing the youngest sister first.

"Jaune!" The young girl threw herself at Jaune, hugging his leg. "I missed you. It's great to see you again!"

"Hey Amethyst. It's great to see you too."

"Did I hear that correctly?" another voice asked, this one much older. That voice belonged to Tangerine, who frowned upon seeing Jaune. "Oh, you've returned."

Next was Acacia and Emerald.

"Jaune! You're alive and unharmed!" Acacia exclaimed.

"Jaune! You're alive. Huzzah!" Emerald exclaimed at the same time.

They dragged him into a group hug. He threw his arms around his sisters. "Oh, I've missed you guys."

Next was Azura. She smiled at him... "So he has survived. Good to see ya, Jaune." Before pointing at him, her eyes shifting to a mean glare. "But don't think you're off the hook."

He scoffed. "Isn't that obvious?"

She was then followed by Indigo. "Jaune, you're alive!" She threw her arms around him and he hugged her back. She smiled at him. "Did my advice help you at all?"

"It did for a while, but I didn't follow it forever." He briefly smiled.

Finally, the eldest one, Rouge, appeared at the foot of the steps. She frowned and folded her arms upon seeing her little brother. "Oh, great. The disgrace to the Arc family name has returned."

Jaune had to bite his tongue. He would retaliate later. He had looked at his sisters, seeing what had changed and what hadn't.

Rouge, aged 23, was the oldest sister and the very definition of femme fatale. Or if nothing else, she certainly looked the part. Her face was naturally gorgeous and usually caked with makeup such as blush, red eyeshadow under her red colored eyes, eyeliner and concealer. Her velvet red hair was knotted into a huge elegant bun on her left side. Her hourglass figure was slender and graceful, perfectly fitting into a red strapless cocktail dress with a flower lace design on the skirt that reached to her knees. She wore red ballerina pumps that could be converted into heels with the touch of a button on the right side. She donned ruby heart-shaped earrings with a silver heart lining on them. The fashionista adorned a necklace of tiny diamonds around her neck while donning a golden delicate bracelet on her right wrist and a silver link bracelet with heart charms on her left. Her nails were adorned with shiny red nail polish and a ruby ring on her right pinky finger. To complete the outfit, she wore a red purse with a long shoulder strap that reached to her waist.

Many would say she's a fashion model or even a seductress. While the first part was certainly true, not everyone was clever enough to realize that underneath that gorgeous image was a professional huntress who graduated from Shade Academy. In addition to all the usual items in her purse, she carried multiple kinds of daggers, some normal, some loaded with various kinds of dust. She also carried pepper spray, mainly to use against any crooks who would try to rob her. She had some fame and popularity from being a huntress and fashion model, but not everyone knew who she was. Gorgeous, confident, and prominent, she was almost impossible for guys to resist, and in Jaune's view, was overly confident with herself.

The second eldest sister was 21 years old and her name was Tangerine. The two eldest sisters were complete opposites. While Rouge was a feminine fashionista, Tangerine was a tough tomboy. Her orange hair was kept in a messy pixie cut. She wore orange cargo pants with a visible rip on the lower left leg paired with a thin black belt that was actually a whip. An orange horizontal stripe t-shirt covered her torso while orange tennis shoes with black laces covered her feet. She wore no jewelry, makeup, or accessories of any kind. And the two eldest sisters didn't just differ in terms of physical appearance, but also in combat and personality.

While Rouge was a graduate of Shade Academy, Tangerine was mostly self-taught with some guidance from various warriors. Also, Tangerine used multiple different kinds of weapons, including but not limited to; swords, spears, daggers, ranged gauntlets, whips, bow and arrows, nunchucks, scythes and guns. Although Tangerine used multiple kinds of weapons when hunting criminals, she always kept two weapons with her at all times; her signature fire-dust spear and the whip-belt. Since she was a self-proclaimed semi-pro huntress/vigilante, it was not uncommon for Tangerine to come home with a few scratches and bruises. Hot-headed, determined, and sometimes impulsive and reckless, she was a tough warrior who was not afraid to show her scars and injures.

Jaune inspected the damage; she had two bruises on her face, one on her forehead and one on her right cheek, both orange colored eyes blackened and swollen, and multiple cuts on her left arm. But the most disturbing injury was a huge visible scar on the outer part of her arm that ran from her right wrist to her elbow.

Acacia, was born before Jaune and was the 3rd oldest sister. Her sun-colored hair was tied into a long braid that reached to her waist. She wore a knee-length lemon chiffon colored flamenco dance dress with a rose petal like design on the skirt. She wore a headband of fake daisies in her hair close to her forehead. On her feet were golden slippers that sparkled whenever she walked. She didn't wear many accessories like Rouge, but she did wear small imitation diamond earrings and a golden cuff bracelet on her right wrist. Unbeknownst to everyone save for her family, she wore contacts on her yellow colored eyes. But she never told anyone.

This 19-year old woman was very sweet, kind and absolutely amazing at singing, but she was easily intimated and had no backbone. Since she was a child, she had wanted to become a singer, but since the dream was unrealistic to her parents (since she never had any singing lessons or involvement in a choir) and difficult to succeed in, she defected to being a chef. This was because her parents required everyone in the household 18 or older to get a job. She still wanted to be a singer, but was unsure how to go about achieving her dream.

Emerald, age 15, was born after Jaune and the 4th youngest/oldest sister. After Jaune's encounter with the thief Emerald Sustrai, it was a bit strange to see Emerald Arc again. But the thief and the intellectual looked nothing alike. Her eyes were actually bright green and colored like emeralds. Her bright green hair was kept in a long ponytail that snaked a few inches down her back. She wore ivy green jeans along with a forest green polo shirt and lime green high top tennis shoes with a white rim. She wore a black headband in her hair to keep her bangs (which she was growing out) away from her face. She wore a small green rubber band around her left wrist along with two black hair bows, one on each wrist.

Although Emerald was commonly called a nerd, bookworm, and a know-it-all, she always said the most accurate and appropriate term to describe her was 'intellectual'. She was the smartest of the Arc siblings and never acted on impulse or emotions. She was always in the pursuit of knowledge and thought everything though, sometimes to an excess. Because of her wise and calm nature, sometimes her family members would come to her for advice. She was not afraid to speak her mind, and if Azure and Roux didn't step to stop an argument between siblings, she would.

The 3rd youngest was a 13-year old girl named Azura. In terms of physical appearance, she was the spitting image of her mother. Same bluebell eyes, same ocean blue hair, they were even styled in a similar manner; long, wavy and completely loose. Azura wore a royal blue dress with a shoulder strap showing a blue rose on her left side paired with wedged blue heels. She wore a blue threaded charm bracelet with a blue scale symbol on her right wrist and donned a blue butterfly charm necklace.

Azura was a very honest girl, never being sarcastic or facetious. She was always straight and to the point. While she was honest, she tried hard to be kind when breaking the truth. In addition to her honesty, her semblance allowed her to detect the lies of others. If anyone tried to lie to her, aware of her ability or not, she would give them a mean or suspicious look. Also, she never once lied to anyone. Whether it was a drawback of her semblance or some high moral code she felt obligated to uphold, Jaune didn't know. Because of this, Jaune never trusted her to keep secrets.

Indigo was the second youngest of the Arc siblings. This 11-year old girl had deep blue eyes, and long slate blue hair, which was loose and usually a rat's nest. The girl wore a blue and white hoodie shirt with a horizontal stripe pattern and blue jeans with a flower/vine design towards the bottom of the right leg. She wore navy blue canvas shoes and a blue ribbon headband in her hair.

Similar as to how Rouge and Tangerine were opposite, so were Azura and Indigo. While Azura was honest, Indigo was crafty, sneaky, ambitious and cunning. She lied quite often. Sometimes for fun, sometimes for her own gain, and sometimes even to try and aid her family. She has said in the past that she has no qualms about lying, and that lying was as easy as breathing. Not only that, she was also really good at it. Not only was she an expert liar (when Azura wasn't in her presence) she was a prankster every now and then. Usually her pranks were harmless, but they were always annoying.

Amethyst, the youngest at the age of nine, was small but cute. Her amethyst eyes shined with many emotions. She wore her purple hair in long pigtails held with slate blue scrunchies. She wore a purple flowergirl dress with a royal purple ribbon around her waist and violet ankle boots. She wore imitation amethyst circle earrings and a pinky ring made of purple thread.

The purple clad girl was bright, cheery and grotesquely optimistic. On one hand, she was like a ray of light, the moon on a dark night, a ray of sunshine on a bright day. On the other hand, due to her being the youngest sister, and youngest in the Arc family, she commonly felt very lonely and unneeded. She had no skills, no interests or talents. Still, she tried her best to help her family however she could.

As his sisters and parents took their place around the table, he reluctantly joined them.

"So Jaune, you've been gone for a year. No calls, no messages, not even a letter! How could you just leave us in the dark like this?!" his mother angrily asked, making him wince in fear.

"Well I tried to send you a letter after the CCT went down, but it seems it never reached you." Jaune answered. "Poor guy probably got eaten by Grimm."

"That's a disturbing thought." Indigo said.

"Indeed it is." Roux began.

"So what happened?" Tangerine inquired.

"It's a long story..." Jaune began.

"Well start talking!" Rouge commanded.

"And don't leave a single detail out." Azura added.

Jaune sighed. "Where do I even begin?"


	18. We Are the Judge and Jury

Author's Notes:

-I apologize if this chapter seems tedious. This whole chapter involves Jaune narrating his time at Beacon with his family's reactions. Eventually, they will decide his fate...

-Here's a little challenge for you, if you're up for it. Now that you know the names of Jaune's sisters, look back to ch. 15's flashback and see if you can figure out which sister said each farewell line.

* * *

"Well, after getting over my motion-sickness that I never knew I had, I found my way to the courtyard and tried to find my way around." Jaune began. "I ended up meeting a girl named Ruby, who, like me, is socially awkward. Despite being only 15 years old, she was a student at Beacon Academy, invited early by Ozpin himself. The two of us found our way to the auditorium, where we were given a brief speech by Headmaster Ozpin and Deputy Headmistress Glydna Goodwitch. We stayed in the ballroom overnight. They were nice enough to give sleeping bags to those who didn't have them. Despite the long journey that made me exhausted, I actually had some difficultly sleeping that night. Somehow I managed to get some sleep that night in spite of my nervousness. Which brings us to initiation day, where I almost died... numerous times.

"The initiation was basically a test to prove our worth. The first year students were divided into groups of 20. That group of 20 students would go to edge of a cliff above Emerald Forest. Unfortunately, I was part of that first group of 20. We were launched off platforms and thrown right into Emerald Forest. Our objective; find a partner, the first person to make eye contact with you, then travel to an abandoned temple where relics where and go to the top of the hill and wait for the pair with the same relic as you to form a team, all while not being killed by Grimm."

"Yeesh. Sounds harsh." Azure said, before turning to Rouge. "Your initiation at Shade was not that harsh, was it?"

"No, it wasn't." Rouge answered. "Granted, it wasn't a cakewalk, but it was not as harsh."

"Anyway, as the students were launched off the platforms, I tried to figure out what a landing strategy was, but I didn't get an answer in time. So there I was, flying through the air, probably about to die, or if nothing else get horribly injured, when out of nowhere, a spear came flying my way, pinning me to a tree, let also saving my soul. Unfortunately, I was stuck there for a while. I tried freeing myself, without luck. This was especially frustrating when Weiss, who was technically the first one I saw, scoffed at me before turning back to Ruby, leaving me hanging in more ways than one. Fortunately, shortly thereafter, Pyrrha Nikos, the wielder of said spear, came to help get me down and we ended up becoming partners. While I originally had no idea who she was when I first encountered her earlier, I learned that she graduated at the top of her class in Sanctum Academy, won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row, and, get this, was the mascot for Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow flakes cereal box."

"Really? You had no idea who Pyrrha Nikos was?! You really have been living under a rock!" Tangerine exclaimed.

"Tangerine, be quiet!" Acacia scolded. "What happened after that?"

"She explained aura to me, and even unlocked mine, I didn't realize it was locked. Anyway, we walked around the forest and entered a cave, that we thought contained the relics, but we were wrong. The cave was actually home to a Death Stalker! I was launched through the air and ended up crashing into Ruby, who was also falling from the sky and saw the temple ground while I was hurled into a tree. After various crazy events, we took the relics, all of which were chess pieces, and created teams to face a giant Nevermore and said Death Stalker. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao-Long took the white knight pieces and formed team RWBY, lead by Ruby Rose. Me and Pyrrha teamed up with Nora Vakyrie and Lie Ren, taking the white rook pieces to form team JNPR, lead by, much to my shock and amazement, me."

"Ok, hold the phone." Rouge stated. "You were the leader of your team? You're joking. Tell me he's joking!"

"He's not joking." Azura commented. Rouge groaned.

"Continuing the story, we beat the Grimm and survived to see another day. Everyone in our group survived. Alas, not everyone was lucky or skilled enough to make it through the initiation. According to what I was told by Velvet, a second year student who is part of team CFVY, there were 15 total first years who failed, and at least seven that were killed by the Grimm. I had survived, it seemed like everything would be okay. Or so I thought. A few days later, I was bullied for the first time by Cardin Winchester, the leader of team CRDL. This bullying occurred for a while, and I didn't realize it at first. Unfortunately, several weeks later, he overheard me confide to Pyrrha how I forged my transcripts and blackmailed me into being his servant for a while. Oh, that was not fun..."

"Oh boy... How did you manage to get out of serving him without your secret being exposed?" Indigo asked.

"I was getting to that. Cardin had me on a leash for a week or so before I snapped. The night before, I spoke with Ruby, who was unaware of my plight, and told me that being a leader wasn't just about me anymore, and that I had to put my teammates before myself. Alas, after she left, Cardin ordered me to round up a bunch of rapier wasps. The following day, we all ventured to the Forever Fall forest, where we were to collect jars of red tree sap. Anyway, being forced to work for Cardin, I had to get six jars of sap. One for every member of team CRDL, one for myself and one for Cardin's nasty plan. With the box of rapier wasps he forced me to gather the night before, he planned a surprise attack on Pyrrha by having someone hit her with the jar of sap and then release the wasps on her... And he wanted me to do it."

Gasps were heard all around.

"You didn't do it, did you?" Amethyst asked sadly.

"No, I didn't. I don't know entirely what it was, but something in my brain clicked and as I looked sadly at my red-haired teammate, I realized that I couldn't do it, no matter what may happen to me. I refused to do it, and in a moment of thoughtlessness, I threw the jar of sap at Cardin. He proceeded to beat me up afterwards, and he promised to send me back in teeny tiny pieces. I glared at him and retaliated in response, 'I don't care what you do to me... but you are _not_ messing with my team.' He tried to punch me again, but before he could do so, something strange happened. Somehow I unconsciously blocked his punch with my aura. I have no idea how it happened, nor did I have anytime to think it over. Cause the next thing I know, an Ursa appeared, either attracted by the sap, his negative emotions, or perhaps both.

"Despite everything he put me through, I still defeated the Ursa and saved his life. But immediately afterwards I spoke these words to him; 'Don't _ever_ mess with my team - my _friends_ \- _ever_ again. Got it?' And that was the end of his bullying. He never once blackmailed me again, although we did still have a minor rivalry, and I still hate his guts. Later that evening, I apologized to Pyrrha and asked her to help me with combat training, even if I believed I didn't deserve her help. Fortunately, she forgave me and that was the beginning of my rise to a warrior. In these sessions, we covered fighting, aura technique, and other subjects I was struggling with.

"The second semester started off with a bang, or with a Yang, as Yang herself would say." He chuckled. "Call it absurd, ludicrous or just down-right silly, but on the first day, team JNPR got into this huge epic food fight with team RWBY. It was quite a lot of fun, even if we did end up losing."

Emerald raised an eyebrow. "How were you defeated?"

"Ruby, who was the only one left at this point, used her semblance, super speed, by dashing around the cafeteria to create a hurricane of various food items that all of us were sucked into. We were slammed into the wall and sprayed with a coating of soda, creating this huge, messy yet colorful and beautiful artwork. Someone even got pictures of it. Of course, Glydna scolded us, but Ozpin told her to let it go for reasons I do not know. It was a real hoot. Anyway, much later on, as a prerequisite to the Vytal Festival that was to take place in Beacon, team RWBY was put in charge of the Beacon Dance. Team CFVY was supposed to organize it, but one of their missions ran overtime. In the days leading up to this formal dance, I tried, and failed miserably, to impress Weiss and get her to go out with me. I had been head-over-heels for her for quite a while, and I had no idea how to speak to her without messing it up and being harshly rejected. I spoke to Ren to try and get help, and then Pyrrha gave me some advice; if it's the truth, I couldn't get it wrong.

"Acting on Pyrrha's advice, I decided to ask her to the dance more honestly without any ridiculous schemes. Unfortunately, by the time I found her, she was already interested in another guy by the name of Neptune Vasilias, a member of team SSSN of Haven, that was at the academy to compete in the tournament. I felt crushed and ran off. I later on learned that while Weiss asked him out, he turned her down because he was reluctant to admit that he could not dance. I gave him the advice Pyrrha told me earlier on being honest and he followed it. Meanwhile, I went forward in my promise to wear a dress for the rest of the evening since Pyrrha did not find a date, swallowing my pride and getting some laughs. There might even be some pictures that ended up online, but who cares? I danced the night away with Pyrrha and my team, and I had a great time.

"Not too long after the Beacon Dance, there was a small scale attack on Vale by the Grimm, but we all managed to stop them. Roman Torckwick, one of the baddest criminals in Vale, was finally captured for his long list of crimes. With upcoming Vytal Festival, and the fact that I survived my first year at Beacon, I believed things would only get better from there. Not too long after the end of the first year, the Vytal Festival Tournament began. The matches took place in the Amity Colosseum, with random territories and random team match-ups. Well, some were random... Moving on, after team RWBY finished their match against team ABRN of Haven, and kicked their butts, we encountered them by chance at a noodle shop and ate lunch with them. Shortly afterwards, we were called to our first match against team BRNZ of Shade. On our side of the field was a mountain, and on their side, a forest.

"The match began with the sniper running into the forest as her teammates and my team charged towards each other. As she started the gunfire, I called for a tactical retreat and told my teammates to spread out, thinking of the divide and conquer strategy. After battling the circular-saw spinner for a while, I recalled that Nora had the semblance of absorbing and producing electric energy to her muscles. Realizing that there was a lightning storm brewing at the top of the mountain, I told her to the get to the top of the rock for a huge power boost. While she scaled the mountain, I called for Ren to distract the sniper. Either he failed at that or the sniper saw right through my plan, because I noticed her aiming for Nora. To foil her plan, I helped up Pyrrha into the air, launching her upward on my shield to guard herself and take the blow, allowing Nora to reach the top and charge up a super powerful attack of heart grenades, which the sniper was able to dodge, but her cover was now exposed, leaving her vulnerable to attack.

"Nora jumped down from the mountain and sent the other three flying to the ground as the sniper coughed on the smoke. I tried to have the team finished them off with team attacks, but everyone forgot what Arkos and Flower Power were."

"Wait. Arkos?" Azura inquired.

"Yeah, it's me and Pyrrha's last names put together." Jaune answered.

"That sounds like a ship name. So does Flower Power." Acacia said.

He sighed. "Moving on... After they didn't understand my directions, we were interrupted by the leader, and I told him that were in the middle of a conservation, before Pyrrha reminded me that we were all in the middle of a fight. Remembering the real situation, I gave an exasperated sigh and ordered Nora to hit em with her hammer. Before anyone could react, she did just that, knocking them out of the arena and against the barrier, almost forming the letters 'YMCA' before they fell to the ground. The second round went smoothly, even if I did not participate. Pyrrha and Nora went on to the doubles round. We were originally going to send Pyrrha and Ren, but after Nora's smashing performance, we all agreed that the two of them together would be unstoppable. Of course, they were. The other team from Haven didn't stand a chance, and were defeated within less than two minutes. Pyrrha knocked out the first one with a barrage of attacks, knocking his aura down to zero and Nora knocked the other guy out of the arena with her hammer.

"A few days later, the second and last match of the Vytal Festival began; Penny Polendina vs Pyrrha Nikos. The fight seemed like it would be in good spirits, but we were wrong. Unbeknownst to all of us, Cinder Fall and her associates were planning the Fall of Beacon. I feel like I should have seen it coming with Yang being tricked into attacking a defenseless Mercury, making it look like an attack done in malice, but no one saw the warning signs. We didn't realize what happened until it was all but too late. When Emerald Sustrai used her semblance, hallucination creation, to trick Pyrrha, everything went horribly wrong. She thought she saw Penny multiply her swords by the dozen, the hundred, a thousand blades aimed all at once. Terrified and confused, she used her semblance, polarity, to a devastating magnitude. This came with severe consequences. Unbeknownst to almost everyone, Penny was a robot with an aura, and the metal bending property of Pyrrha's power crushed her and severed her into pieces with her own swords, leaving everyone, especially Pyrrha, horrified at what she had done."

Gasps were heard from many who were present. Those who weren't frozen in fear, meaning Azura, Emerald, Tangerine, Rouge and Roux were visibly downcast from his proclamation.

"Oh no..." Azura said, falling into despair.

"Oh.." Rouge moaned in sorrow.

"Ohhh..." Amethyst added.

After a moment of silence, his father asked, "And what happened afterwards?"

"Obvious spoiler alert; it gets worse from there. Shortly after the duel, a woman, who we believe to be Cinder Fall, hijacked the broadcast and gave this huge speech condemning the government of the kingdoms, especially Atlas, and that they could not be trusted. With people upset, scared and unsure who to follow, the Grimm were attracted to the city and the White Fang soon followed. The Amity Colosseum was attacked by a Nevermore, which we managed to subdue before Professors Port and Oobleck told us to scram, leaving them to fight the monsters. Of course, they survived, so while they fought in the city, we tried to protect our school. During the chaos, Atlas drones were hacked, adding to the escalating chaos. After a brief duel with the forces of evil, I saw Pyrrha approach Ozpin. I followed to see what was going on, little did I know what I was getting myself into."

"So what happened? What did you get into?" Azura asked.

"That... is tricky. It contains classified information. Therefore, I will tell you the unclassified version, which is only half-true. This is what we would end up telling Nora and Ren. We were taken to this secret vault underneath the school. There was this weapon that Pyrrha was supposed to take control of and wield in order to help save the world, even though there were risks to using it. Unfortunately, Cinder got the weapon before Pyrrha did, and the two of us were forced to flee. Ozpin fought her, but considering that we heard the raven-haired thief propelling herself to the top of Beacon tower, we knew that he lost. Alas, what we don't know is what happened to him as a result of his clash with Cinder. Pyrrha looked at the top of the tower and just by the look on her face, I knew that she planned to face her all by herself. I begged her and pleaded her not to do it. But before she left, she did something that I never would have imagined her doing.

"She kissed me. She cupped her hand around my face, my brain couldn't even process what was happening. I threw my arms around her waist and returned the kiss. As she broke the kiss, she looked at me sorrowfully, saying 'I'm sorry' before using her semblance to push me into a rocket locker and sending me away to protect me from Cinder's wrath. After I landed in a desolated part of the city, I called the first person I saw in my contacts list; Weiss, and begged her and Ruby to save Pyrrha before she got killed. The call had ended with me smashing my scroll by throwing it on the ground. I was terrified, losing my mind, and right before I was dragged into combat, I realized how I felt about her; I was in love with her, and I still am. Unfortunately, I was then pitted against a horde of Grimm. During the ensuing fight, my shield ended up shattered as it was crushed in the claws of a Nevermore. Eventually, I managed to defeat them all.

"After defeating the Grimm, Professor Oobleck found me and took me aboard a bullhead that brought me and numerous other students to a warehouse on the opposite side of Vale. This battle was a disaster. Several students injured or killed, and some, like Weiss and Ruby, were missing. According to what I was told by other students much later, as a result of them being MIA, Blake ran away for reasons unknown, Weiss was taken back home to Atlas by her dad, and Ruby and Yang went home to patch. Anyway, once we got to the warehouse, they took role call, which took an eternity. Then they asked some teams to get apartments since they didn't have enough supplies for everyone. After 10 minutes of discussion, they asked teams what they would prefer. Those who wanted apartments were given arrangements made by Dr. Oobleck, while those staying at the refuge were given sleeping bags and pillows by Mr. Port. Some people such as Blake, Yang, team SSSN, and team NDGO stayed there. Other teams, like my own team, team CRDL and team CFVY, decided to get apartments. I made this decision, possibly against my teammates wishes, to avoid people seeing me sobbing and that I could keep my negative emotions to myself as I attempted to deal with them.

"Unfortunately, my heart nor my mind would let me rest. After waking up from a terrible nightmare at 3:20 am, I grabbed my gear, wrote a note to my teammates explaining what I was doing, and went out to search for Pyrrha. She had been missing for 20 hours, and out of those 20 hours she was gone, I was looking for her for close to 15 hours. As the sun was setting, I was just about to throw in the towel, when my luck changed for the better. I found Qrow Branwen, Ruby and Yang's uncle, who knew where Pyrrha was and lead me right to her. Sad to say, she was damaged as if she was a fragile porcelain doll. I sobbed for her and held her hand, hoping for her to say something. I was just about to give up faith, when I felt her gently grasp my hand as she woke up, much to my relief. I asked Qrow to leave the room, and after a moment of awkward silence, she told me the truth- the unclassified version of the story. After we left the hospital, we encountered team CRDL, who were quite mean to me and Pyrrha, especially when she tripped and twisted her other ankle. I carried her like a princess and after getting her away from those horrible men, I confessed my love for her, we shared our second kiss and became an official couple."

"Aw, how romantic!" Acacia cheered.

"That's adorable!" Amethyst agreed.

Rouge rolled her eyes as Jaune continued. "I know right? We made it back to the apartment, ate dinner with our teammates, told them the classified version of the story and spoke some prayers to the forces of the universe as I fell asleep with the girl of my dreams in my arms. I didn't really know who to thank, so I thanked any deity that was listening. So we were all living there for two weeks. During this time, Pyrrha retrieved Penny's swords to retrieve the remains of her weapons at Beacon's destroyed CCT tower and eventually, my scroll, as well as my shield and Pyrrha's spear, were repaired. We also discovered that some of the matches in the tournament were rigged, but we had no way of determining all of the ones that were rigged. Unfortunately, the landlord was increasing everyone's rent in the apartment complex, and because of that, and Beacon's destruction, we left and went our separate ways. Nora and Ren went on a boat to their treehouse in Fiti, Pyrrha went back to her home in Mistral, and I went back here. After Ren and Nora left, me and Pyrrha spoke to each other about family and moving on. Eventually, the helicopter pilot arrived to take her to the airport back to Mistral. She gave me some items and was about to leave, but it wasn't that easy to let go. After one last kiss, and a tearful goodbye, she left, leaving me all alone.

"And that was it. The end of Beacon, team JNPR, my time in Vale and the departure of my first and only love. So, reluctantly... I came back here. And that is the end of the story. There is nothing more to say, I guess, other than... 'Can you forgive me?'"

"Well, he's been honest this entire time, even if he gave us a classified version of the secrets of Beacon's vault..." Azura said. "But he's probably going to be punished either way.

The patriarch of the Arc family spoke, "Alas, there is a slight problem with the punishment I had in mind... I was going to take away his scroll and ground him to his room for a very long time, but considering that the Beacon CCT tower is down, that punishment would not be very effective."

Rouge smirked to herself before turning to face her father. "I have an idea on how Jaune should be punished, that is, if you would allow it."

"Go on." Roux coaxed.

"Jaune should be punished with being the housekeeper, meaning he has to do all the household chores. This would not only punish him for forging his transcripts, it would allow mom and dad more working hours to get more money and get out of the huge debt faster. Oh, and make him a butler as well!"

"What?!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Hmm... Housekeeper and butler. I like that idea." Roux stated. "I say we do a majority vote. If at least five of us believe that Jaune deserves to be punished in the described manner, join Rouge at the end of the table. If you believe he shouldn't be punished in this manner or not at all, go to the opposite end of the table."

Roux and Azure joined Rouge at the other end of the table. The other sisters stood up as well. Tangerine walked towards Rouge and her parents, not even giving her brother a passing glance.

"Tangerine? Why?" he asked her.

"Sorry Jaune. I can understand what you're trying to do, but the way you are going to achieve the dream you have in mind, is immoral and wrong." She folded her arms. "If you were smarter, you would have asked me for help instead of lying to no end."

"Huh. For once Rouge and Tangerine agree on something." Emerald remarked. "That's not something you see everyday."

"I don't believe Jaune should be punished at all." Amethyst said. "He never hurt anyone, he never killed anyone. I don't see what the big deal is, therefore, I'm standing by him, and you should too." She walked to the other end of the room. "I've got your back, big bro!"

Jaune briefly smiled. "Amethyst is right." Acacia answered. "Jaune's chasing after his dreams. He shouldn't be punished for that. You should reward him for coming so far in such little time."

She stood by Amethyst's side.

"Same here. He did what he had to and no one was hurt. Also, it's not like he stole the opportunity from anyone else. He survived and thrived. No punishment for Jaune!" Indigo declared, standing by Acacia and Amethyst.

"I don't want to be swayed by emotions, so I am going to think this through logically." She breathed in and her body began to glow with an emerald green aura. After five seconds, the aura vanished. Jaune gawked in confusion, pointing his thumb to her, hoping for an explanation. After a moment of silence, she gave her answer. "I am not going to see Jaune punished." Her voice was different, without any emotion, monotone, almost like she was a robot. "I am saying this for the following reasons. One, Rouge is suggesting two different punishments for only one bad deed. If this punishment were to be executed, it would be unfair and drive Jaune to the ground. Two, while Jaune may have done an immoral act by lying and cheating his way into Beacon, he was following his dreams, as Acacia and Indigo mentioned earlier. Three, he never hurt anyone while achieving these dreams, as Amethyst mentioned earlier. And four, while I do believe Jaune should be punished, preferably with housekeeper since it would be the most productive and effective solution, the punishment Rouge is suggesting is too harsh, and therefore, I stand by my brother, older sister and younger sisters."

Emerald joined the others as Roux surveyed the situation. "Well, it seems we are at an impasse. Oh wait! Someone hasn't voted yet! Azura has yet to choose what she believes should be done." He turned to Jaune. "Looks like your fate rests in her hands." He turned to his daughter. "So Azura, do you believe Jaune deserves to be punished as the housekeeper and butler, or should he just get away scot-free?"

"Well... Considering that Jaune never lied once, even about the classified information..." Everyone watched on in silence, waiting for the lie detector to make her decision. "I'm afraid... I have to see to it that Jaune Arc..." The room showed Jaune's supporters, save for Emerald, be extremely worried, those against Jaune were looking on in wonder and Jaune himself about ready to bite his nails. "be punished."

Rouge cheered at Azura's decision.

"Aw..." Acacia, Amethyst and Indigo said sadly in unison.

"Undesired outcome has occurred." Emerald stated.

"What? But why?" Jaune asked.

"You lied and cheated your way into Beacon, did you really think a good and honest truth-teller like myself would just let that go unpunished?" Azura answered. "Also, you have refused to answer the following question several times; where did you get the money to enroll at Beacon Academy?"

"Look, if I could tell you, I would, but I can't, so I won't, ok?"

Only his parents knew the truth about that, because he made them swear to secrecy. His sisters had no idea.

"Well then. Jaune Arc, your punishment as housekeeper starts tomorrow. Azure will make a list of chores you must attend to on a regular basis. Your punishment as butler however, starts now!" Roux decreed.


	19. In the End

Pyrrha Nikos first looked around her neighborhood and asked her neighbors what happened. Nobody knew and they contacted the police. When the police arrived, the gladiator girl asked that they search for him, in hopes that they could find him. After being questioned on what she knew, she then went to all the hospitals to see if he was injured by the people who killed her parents. None of the hospitals had anyone named Ash Nikos in their wards. She thought that maybe he wasn't at the house when the killers broke in, so she searched the downtown city of Mistral. As she roamed the streets, she tried to think of all the usual places that her brother Ash would be if he was in the city.

 _Let's see, there's the arcade, the park I was at earlier, the outdoor theatre, the training grounds, and that pizza/ice cream parlor he and his friends like so much._

She went to each of those places and asked numerous people on his whereabouts. Eventually, she slumped her back against a lamppost. She had searched everywhere. The sun was beginning to set and she still hadn't found where her little brother had gone.

 _This isn't working._ she thought. _I've searched everywhere! There's no way he could be at Sanctum, they already ended their year with_ _the annual Mistral tournament three_ _weeks ago! Where in the world could he possibly be?!_

"Hey you! Yeah, you!" an angry voice called out from behind.

She turned around and saw about five people, four male and one female, with various different kinds of weapons. Upon seeing them, she had a very bad feeling stir up inside her. A small cold chill crept down her spine, her muscles barely moved and she felt a fiery, hot-blooded feeling churn through her stomach. She looked at them, her eyes wide in terror.

"You know what you are? A liar, a murderer!" the second one insulted.

"You murdered Penny Polendina in an act of malice!" the woman claimed.

"Stop it! It's not true!" she proclaimed.

"Liar!" the third one cried out.

She put her fists to her heart. "I never meant to hurt her, or anyone else!"

"You're lying! You possess her swords! Only a truly evil warrior would ever commit such a crime- to murder and steal from the dead!"

She tried to back away in hopes of escaping without a confrontation. "I never stole anything! I found them!" she retaliated.

"Enough! Headmaster Ozpin thinks he can train liars, rogue huntresses and murderesses, right? WRONG!" the fourth one shouted.

The last one shot fire dust loaded arrows at her, and she briefly saw the image of Cinder briefly, screaming in horror as she tried to get a grip on reality. She backflipped as the arrows hit the ground, causing fiery explosions not far from her feet. The rest of them unsheathed their weapons; swords, spears, a gun, and even a rolling pin by the woman. The woman held it by her right hand and pounded it against her left hand before grasping it and glaring at the gladiator girl. Normally, Pyrrha would fight if people confronted her like this, but not this time.

"Oh no..."

"Get her!" the woman commanded.

The band of enraged civilians charged towards Pyrrha. Swiftly turning away from her accusers, she ran like the devil was on her heels.

* * *

"Your punishment as butler however, starts now!"

"And since I cast the deciding vote, I believe I have the right to the first command." The truth teller snapped her fingers. "Fetch me a tall glass of water, lots of ice."

The former Beacon student sighed as he carried out her command. Upon handing the glass to his little sister, he asked, "Alright, now that you've interrogated me to no end, I'd say I have the right to ask what was happened in my absence. So what's changed while I was away?"

"Some things have changed, yet others remain the same. We still have the massive dead man's debt to pay off, but it did decrease from 7.5 million to 6 million. But considering we started at 125 million Lien, we still have a long way to go. Rouge is still a model and huntress, although she hasn't been called for huntress duty in over a year, much to our surprise. She also dumped her boyfriend a week after you left."

"That makes... 10 boyfriends she's had?"

"14 actually. But who's counting aside from Emerald?" Tangerine asked.

Jaune looked at the tough tomboy, concerned for her. "And what in the world happened to you?"

"Do you want me to explain?" Roux asked.

She sighed. "No. I'll tell him. He has the right to know. Three days ago, while looking for fugitives to hunt, I saw a White Fang lieutenant enter an abandoned warehouse on the south side of the city. I followed him and soon four other guys joined him. I recognized the lieutenant as a wanted criminal and I challenged the quintet to a duel. I felt good, confident, on top of the world and even lucky. Due to my overconfidence, I used up too much of my aura to power my semblance. And once the temporary invincibility was gone, I was more vulnerable than ever. I thought I could defeat all five of them in one go, but I only got one of them before my aura ran out. I tried to fight the remaining thugs without my aura and I got horribly beaten as a result. They ganged up on me with a series of relentless attacks. Less than three minutes later, my eyes were blackened, I had suffered a lot of damage, and while my vision blurred, one of them attempted to stab me in the chest, but I managed to evade, getting the scar on my arm as a result. I had no idea whether or not I would even survive that duel, but I had to press on. Bracing myself for the worst, I retrieved my weapons, ready to fight again, even if it killed me.

"However, when they heard the sounds of sirens, the four thugs ran away. I tried to go after them, but I fell to my knees, weak and disoriented. The two cops recognized me. The first one took the criminal to jail while the second one accompanied me to the hospital. I don't remember much of the ride in the ambulance, but somehow I managed to not fall unconscious. The officer told me that I was lucky that my skull wasn't fractured and that I didn't suffer worse injury. As I was being treated for my injures, he asked me why I continued doing this. Somewhat reluctantly, I told him about my dreams of being a huntress and how I was using the cash to help my family pay off the big debt. Out of sympathy or pity, he gave me all the money he had in his wallet; 25 Lien. It was the second lowest haul ever, followed only by zero. He was also nice enough to give me a ride back home once his comrade returned from the jail where he took the lone criminal. The doctors told me to stay in bed for at least a week, while mom and dad insisted on two weeks. We reached a compromise of 10 days, which means I still have another week to go, even though the deep cut on my arm closed up surprisingly quick." She groaned. "This totally sucks..."

"Hey watch the language." Rouge stated. "Nothing's changed much for Acacia, but Emerald has discovered her semblance; emotion suppression."

"What? She doesn't even try to unlock it and yet I try for over a year and I still haven't found it? No fair!" Jaune pouted, before scratching his head. "Also, how does that even work?"

"The mechanism that I use to describe this phenomenon is the lock and key metaphor." Emerald began, still in her emotionless voice. "In the words of Acacia, I can lock up my heart and not feel it. I create this 'lock' by using 25 percent of my aura and imagining my feeling disappearing, effectively locking my emotions that they can not be felt. To remove this lock, I envision a key of memories with emotions tied to them and open up the lock, letting me feel emotion again. Note that unlocking my emotions costs me no amount of aura at all."

"Azura and Indigo haven't changed much, but Amethyst has taken up two new hobbies; baking and sewing. She actually plans on doing a bake sale pretty soon." Azure added.

"Is there anything else you would like to tell me, or can I go put my stuff away now?"

"Well, there's been a new rule applied to the members of this household. You remember how everyone 18 or older must have some sort of job to help pay off the debt? That rule has been modified to the age of 16. You however, are exempt from this rule due to the laborious nature of your punishment. I believe that is all. The meeting is over. You may resume your usual activities."

The Arc siblings, save for Rouge, left the room. Jaune took his bags to his quarters. Since there was a bit of light left shining through his window, he didn't bother turning on the lights. As he set his backpack down, he sighed to himself. He got out his clothes, separating clean from dirty into drawers and the hamper respectively. Once that was done, he put his personal possessions in his memory chest. Then he got out Pyrrha's parting gifts; her circlet and the sword of Penny, and set them upon his desk, along with a photo of Pyrrha Nikos. He looked at the photo forlornly; she was standing before the statue of the hunter and huntress in Beacon. Before the school fell, before she left him...

"Where did the good times go?" A knock on the door was heard. "Come in."

He turned away as the door opened, revealing Acacia on the other side.

"Hey Jaune... Are you alright?"

The young warrior sighed. "I would like to say I'm fine, but then I'd be lying."

"You could lie." She chuckled. "I'm not a living lie detector."

He smiled dryly. "Yeah, but then I'd feel bad..."

Jaune sat down on the bed, which wasn't even made and kicked off his shoes. After doing this, Acacia sat down next to him. She noticed the display of items on his desk and pointed to the picture. "Who is that?"

"The woman in the picture? That is Pyrrha Nikos. And those mementos before her image are all that I have left of her."

She blinked in realization. "Oh... Your... your love..."

"You've never fallen in love, have you?"

"Can't say that I have." She crossed her legs. "Besides, I've got a singing career to fulfill before I even try to find Mr. Right."

"Then why haven't you done anything? You've been working as a chef for one and a half years."

The singer sighed. "Come on Jaune, you know me, I'm not brave like you. Besides, if I try to switch careers, I fear that my whole family, aside from you, won't support me and just try to tear me down."

He put his hand on her left shoulder in attempt to reassure her. "I can understand your fear, but I highly doubt that everyone would ridicule you."

"I don't even have any credentials. And there's no way I could fake it like you did."

He took his hand away. "Hmm... I honestly don't believe that being a singing sensation requires much experience, unlike applying to a huntsmen academy. If you want to build up a rep, start by singing at small private events like a wedding or reception of sorts. You'll not only get some experience, you'll get some extra dough. Who knows? Maybe if you're lucky, a record company might take interest in you."

She smiled to herself briefly. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea." She widened her eyes. "But what do I tell the family? Should I even tell them?"

"That decision is up to you."

"Well... It's worth a shot." She shrugged and smiled. "What do I have to lose?"

"It's not like you're doing anything wrong to achieve your dreams." He chuckled. "I'm surprised you forgave me so easily when my actions were revealed to everyone."

"You're following your dreams. Who am I to judge?" She leaned back and had her hands to her shoulders, palms facing upward. "If it was up to me, I'd be rewarding you for how far you've come in such little time."

"You're the best older sister I could ask for."

"Hey, I'm on your side no matter what. Thanks again for your advice."

"No problem!" A knock was heard on the door. "Come in."

Rouge opened the door and saw her younger siblings sitting on the bed. "Oh, didn't realize you'd be here. Jaune Arc, I require your assistance."

Begrudgingly, Jaune stood up and asked her with an unamused look, "What do you want?

"Oh, don't fret. This is an easy task."

Why did he believe that she was lying? He had no time to think about that. He briefly screamed as Rouge grabbed his wrist and ran through the hall with him.

 _I hope Pyrrha Nikos is doing alright with her family..._ he thought to himself.

* * *

Pyrrha had managed to get out alive and uninjured, but just barely. After escaping her pursuers, she eventually found her way to the nearest hunters supply store. These small in size stores were similar to convenience stores, except they stocked supplies hunters and huntresses would use. They had a variety of different items, including but not limited to; weapons, ammunition, dust, cloaks, MREs, survival guides and various travel bags. As she looked around at all the aisles, she noticed it was fairly deserted, much to her relief. Another attack on her, whether it be verbal or physical, was the last thing she needed. She looked around and as she went towards the cloaks, she heard the familiar tune of swords clashing against her waist. She sighed.

 _I'm going to need something to carry these swords in. If people hear the clinking of the swords around my waist, they'll hear me coming from a mile away! I need a way to carry them without them making a ton of noise.  
_

She searched around for a duffel bag. She took a red shoulder strap duffel bag from a hook and attempted to put all of her swords in there, just to be sure that they would fit. Much to her amusement, all of them fit in nicely. After closing the bag, she walked around, hearing little noise, and ran across the aisle again to test it out. No loud clanging and clashing. Perfect. She grabbed a large red cloak, a pair of white dress gloves (who knew they had those?), a two week food supply container, a tent, sleeping bag, collapsible pillow and a refillable water bottle. Who knows where she was going to go, and how long she would be gone?

She was also fortunate that some of the items were on sale. After grabbing everything she needed for her journey, she went up to the counter. The shopkeeper, a young man in his 30's with blond hair and green eyes soon went back to his station.

"Hello there. Did you find everything you need?" the shopkeeper asked.

"I sure did." she answered.

He looked at her inventory. "What's all this for?"

"Long journey, I guess."

"That'll be 70 Lien." She handed the money to him and then put on the gloves and cloak, but she kept her hood down. "Thank you for your patronage. So if you don't mind me asking, what's a young woman like you doing trying to conceal yourself?"

"Well..." She hesitated. "I just escaped from a band of lunatics with various weapons who believe I murdered Penny in an act of malice."

"Wait a second." He squinted at her. "You're Pyrrha Nikos, aren't you?"

The young huntress rubbed her arm nervously. "Yeah... I am... You don't... think I'm a murderer, do you?"

He dismissed that thought. "I never jump to conclusions, and I try not to make them until I have the full story. If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

She sighed. "I'd tell you the full story, but I'm worried you won't believe me."

"Tell away. I'm all ears and I'm pretty open minded."

"Well, during the fight, I thought I saw Penny multiply her swords into several hundred blades that she was about to be aim right at me. But in reality, it was a woman named Emerald Sustrai using her semblance to create a hallucination in order to trick me into using my semblance, polarity, to a devastating level, unintentionally tearing her into pieces."

He sulked in silence for a moment before answering a moment later with, "Hmm... Most unusual. Some persuadable people would probably believe that it was an accident, but under a hallucination spell... Eh... Something tells me they probably wouldn't believe that."

Her shoulders slumped. "I wouldn't expect them to. Heck, I'm surprised you believe me."

"I've heard crazier stories. Many tales taller than this. Tell ya what, I'll put up a picture of you that says, _"Pyrrha Nikos is not a murderer. She was tricked and never meant to hurt anyone. She had no idea that Penny Polendina was a robot."_ What do you think?"

"That'll do. But you don't have to do that."

"I'm doing it because I want to. No hero should have to conceal themselves from the world."

She looked at him all bug-eyed. "You believe I'm a hero?"

"I know you are, just by looking at you." Her face turned as red as her hair in response. "Good luck out there, Pyrrha Nikos."

"Thanks. I'll need it."

After filling up her bottle at the convenient water bottle filling station, stowing it away along with her other supplies, and putting her hood up, she left the store. Never did Pyrrha imagine that she would be forced to conceal herself. Never could she have imagined people hunting her because they wrongly believed she was a murderess. Never could she have imagined her surviving her duel with Cinder, feeling so much agony from leaving Jaune and her team behind, the death of her parents, her brother going missing and nearly being killed by nutcase combatants. But who would? She still couldn't believe that that this is how it all ended. She tried so hard and got so far. But in the end, did it really even matter? She didn't believe so.

As she walked away from the store and into the city, a new and horrifying thought was conceived in her mind.

 _Could somebody who hates me and believes I'm a murderer gone after my family? Did someone with those false beliefs kill my parents?  
_

 _Probably._ a voice in her head responded.

 _Don't jump to conclusions._ the rational part of her brain thought. _Are they after my brother as well?_

She didn't know what to think. She couldn't think. She just felt. And all she felt was pain. Sorrow. Loneliness. Emptiness. With the discovery of her parents death and the absence of her brother, she felt dead inside. Now she knew that there was a different way to die; her body breathed, her heart would still beat, but she was not alive. As she traveled through the streets of Mistral, she came to a bridge and looked at the city from down below. Her eyes then looked upwards to the top of the hill, where Haven Academy stood in all its glory. As she looked at the huntsmen academy, a memory and a thought slowly came to her.

 _Cinder and her associates were from Haven. Or so they claimed._ She mused to herself for a moment. _I could confront them at the school, defeat them, and..._

 _And what?_ the logical voice in her head asked her. _Try to face her again and end up killed this time?_

Pyrrha sighed. There was no guarantee that Cinder and her allies would even be there. Best case scenario for her, they wouldn't be there and she wouldn't have to fight them. But it seemed unlikely to her. She remembered that when encountering Emerald and Mercury at Beacon Academy in the aftermath, Cinder was absent. She might have been put out of commission, as Emerald said Ruby did 'something' to Cinder. But what was it? Unfortunately, she had no real way of knowing, because she had no clue what happened after she took the arrow for Ruby. All she knew was that she was taken the hospital. But even if Cinder was decommissioned, there would still be Mercury and Emerald to deal with. She would be able to take down the former easily, but the latter scared her with her deceptive semblance. She also remembered them mentioning someone called Watts. She sighed; there could be even more friends and allies of Cinder that she didn't know about.

She looked at her hands and imagining Penny's sword in it for a moment.

 _I'm sorry Penny._

She ran off the bridge and into the city again, leaving the sight of Haven Academy behind her. She walked through the city, searching one last time for her brother. By the time she reached the bottom of the mountain, she was emotionally exhausted, numb and dead inside. There was nothing left. No reason for her to stay here. She had to assume she would never be able to find her brother and most likely never see him again. Underneath the cloak, a few tears fell down her face. Just as the last rays of the sun were fading away, so was the hope and light in the world.

"Goodbye Mistral."

And so, with a heavy heart, she left the only place she had ever known as her home, unsure where to go, what to do, or if she would ever come back. She felt like had reached the end, but it wasn't over. She was still among the living, but in the end, her efforts didn't matter. She was already dead anyway.


	20. Poor Unfortunate Souls

Adam Taurus knew he was in trouble. He knew Sienna was coming. It was only a matter of time before her arrival. He sat down on his throne, trying to resist the urge to pace about. He was not going to show more fear than necessary.

"Master Taurus." The messenger came rushing in, trying to catch his breath. " _She_ is here."

"Send her in." He stood up as the messenger opened the doors, steeling himself to face the music. "High Leader Khan."

As she approached him, he bowed down to Sienna on his knees. The leader looked at him with a scowl. "Adam Taurus, do you know why I have come here?"

Behind his mask, he looked at her eyes sincerely yet calmly. "I believe I do."

"Then tell me; why am I here?"

"You have come to ask me about the events that occurred at Beacon Academy."

"You are correct. So spill! What happened?"

"There are a lot of preceding events to the Fall of Beacon, but the most crucial would have to be the first and second matches within the singles round of the Vytal Festival. I didn't get to witness the first one, where someone was attacked in cold-blooded spite in the aftermath, but I did get to see the duel between Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina, in which Pyrrha was tricked into using her semblance to tear the metallic girl into pieces. The world was horrified upon seeing the end of the match. Immediately afterwards, the broadcasts were jammed, and Cinder, one of my allies, made a speech to stir up chaos. In fact, I even memorized her words."

Sienna looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What did she say to the horrified audience?"

"Her words were and I quote," He cleared his throat before reciting Cinder's speech. 'This is _not_ a tragedy. This was _not_ an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your _children_ , to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than _men_. Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both. They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference. And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching _his_ students? First a dismemberment, now this?

"Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither. Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the Tournament would help people forget his _colossal_ failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is... _equally_ undesirable. Our Kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet _we_ , the citizens, are left in the dark. So I ask you: When the first shots are fired... who do you think you can trust?'"

"Hmm. Well if she was trying to stir up chaos, she did a pretty damn good job..."

He smiled briefly. "I would have to agree with you there."

 _Wait a second! He's trying to distract me by shifting the focus away from him! What a sneak!_

"Alright, enough messing around. Get to the point." she ordered.

"Anyway, after her speech, the Grimm started to attack the city, and so did we. Shortly thereafter, Atlas drones were hacked and began to attack innocent civilians. No one knows who to blame, really. What I had hoped to do was to defeat Headmaster Ozpin in the midst of all the chaos, to show what happens when humans oppress the faunus. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to carry out this action. Somehow a giant Grimm dragon emerged from this chaos, and rather than risk the lives of my followers, we swiftly fled the city and retreated here. Alas, I can not say that this attack ended with everyone of us making it out of there alive and unharmed. I was about to inform you of what happened, when suddenly the Vale CCT tower had been destroyed."

"And how did that happen?"

"I have no idea." he truthfully answered. "By the time the CCT tower went down, I had already fled the city with my men."

"Do you know how many injures and deaths to the White Fang there were?"

"At over 20 injures and at least ten deaths. There's probably more of both of these events."

"Hmm..." Sienna mused to herself for a moment. "I don't want to demote you, you've done a such a good job as leader of Vale's White Fang before now... But at the same time, you caused a huge wave of terror throughout the globe, painted a bigger target on our backs, and worst of all, willingly worked with humans who don't give a damn about us. Therefore, I'll be taking one third of your troops..."

"What?"

"And reassigning them to work in Mistral."

He reached his hand out, trying to protest. "But..."

She glared at him, folding her arms. "Don't argue, or I'll make it worse."

He sighed and looked down. "Understood, High Leader. I yield. Although, of all the places to reassign my troops, why Mistral?"

"That is because of the events of the False Signal Incident."

He looked at her, his eyebrows secretly raised in confusion underneath the mask. "False Signal Incident?"

She gave him a disappointed look. "You didn't hear of the False Signal Incident, also called Storming the Sanctuary?"

Adam nodded, confirming what she already knew. "I can't say that I have, High Leader. What has happened there?"

"According to what I was told by Maura, several weeks ago, after the annual Mistral Regional Tournament, a group of rogue White Fang members openly declared that they were going to attack Signal Academy in Vale. They said they were going to attack in three days. To prepare for the incoming attack, they called on huntsmen and huntresses from Vale and Mistral to defend the school. When the third day came, they expected an attack. But it never came. It was a diversion to call away the professionals from the real attack on Sanctum Academy. Maura ordered the group not to attack, but despite her commands, they recruited hundreds of White Fang members and angry Faunus from around the world to storm the huntsmen prep school. Everyone knows that Sanctum Academy is surrounded by a huge stone circular wall and the large moat with alligators, so one would think the school could never be invaded. They thought wrong. They planned out their ambush, first by having a White Fang agent, disguised as a teacher, infiltrate the school and throw a specially-designed ice capsule to freeze the water from the moat into a thick ice lake. Then they planted bombs on the wall and blew the entire structure to pieces. Once that was done, they drew down the drawbridge and began to invade the school.

"No one could have seen it coming. They had the element of surprise on their side, and it seemed as if the school would fall. However, the new Mistral Tournament Champion, Ash Nikos, was able to hold back their forces while his friends notified the staff and students about the situation. He lead the teachers into battle against the group of White Fang members and their allies, even if one later admitted, 'that boy [Ash] is absolutely crazy.' While they originally didn't want the students to have to fight, the teachers were overwhelmed by their numbers and had no choice but to accept their help. With Ash at the helm, they managed the defeat the rogue faunus, but as a result of the incident, Mistral's White Fang branch has been weakened and divided. Maura made a video showing her as a silhouette, claiming that the faunus who attacked Sanctum Academy did not represent the will and motives of the White Fang. Of course, many did not believe her, and despite her attempt to make amends, a huge bounty has been put on her head."

Adam stated, "Well, that is troubling to hear."

"Indeed it is. I can only hope she can avoid trouble until this situation between Mistral and the White Fang dies down. Then again... that may not happen. Either way, that is why I am assigning one third of your troops to Mistral. I'll be checking in with you in a few months. I hope that by then, you can get your act together and further strengthen our cause without causing unnecessary violence."

"I will."

He had no idea if he was going to follow through on her instruction.

"Until then, farewell Adam Taurus, and good luck. You're going to need it." She began to walk away, before stopping herself to face him once more as he slowly rose from the ground. "Oh and um, fire those humans while you're at it."

She slowly disappeared from his line of sight. Once she exited, the White Fang messenger closed the doors as Adam sarcastically remarked, "Well, this is just great."

"What are you doing to do now, Master?"

He sighed deeply. "That is what I must figure out."

 _I promised to make Blake suffer, and I will._ Adam thought to himself. _Since she was a student at Beacon Academy, she had to have had three different teammates. The unnamed blonde brawler who confronted me is one of them, but who are the other two? And where are the three of them now?_

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Patch, the blonde who was once a brawler laid there in the guest room of the house. Yang heard the sound of a slash, startling her, so got up from the bed, still in her pajamas and watched the scene down below. She sighed in relief; the slash was just Ruby continuing to practice fighting with her weapon. She knew the sound of Ruby's Crescent Rose, but why did it still startle her?

She briefly turned away from the window and looked at the calendar on the wall.

 _October 25th._ she noted to herself. _Four weeks, if you look at a month as 28 days, then one month, since Beacon was attacked. One month since all was lost._ She looked back to the window, with Ruby briefly smiling as she slashed a cardboard cutout of an Ursa. Every afternoon, at around 3pm, Ruby would sharpen her combat skills by facing off against cardboard cutouts of Grimm that she created the night before. It wasn't quite as effective as training against an actual opponent, but it was better than nothing. _Yet... Ruby's still training... Still smiling. How is this so?_ She looked again at the calendar. _It is getting close to Ruby's birthday. But even then, that doesn't explain why she's continuing to train. Beacon's been destroyed. It's not like they're going to repair it. So why does she press on?_

She looked at Ruby's face, smiling as she struck down a Beowolf.

 _And how does she still manage to smile?_

As Yang asked herself that question, she went away from the window as Ruby struck down the last Grimm with a bullet.

"I'm going to need to make more of these... and get more ammunition. Note to self; save bullets and dust for the real deal."

 _Also, I've done this so many times I could do it blindfolded. How do I spice it up?_

As if the person could read her thoughts, a voice said to her, "Well it might actually help if you had a real training partner as opposed to third grade cutouts."

Ruby turned around to find her honorary uncle. "Uncle Qrow!" She threw her arms around him. She looked at him curiously. "I thought you were away on important huntsmen work."

"I was, but I'm back. At least for a while." He turned to her hesitantly, his smile disappearing. "Is Yang getting any better?"

"Not really." She frowned. "If anything, I'm worried it's gotten worse. Everytime I tried speaking to her, she pushes me away." She started repairing the cardboard cutout models with duct tape. "I guess that's also another reason I'm doing this same training exercise over and over again."

He looked at the remains the cutouts. "To distract yourself from the situation at hand?"

"Yeah..." she admitted. "That isn't a bad thing, is it?"

"I wouldn't say so. But the thing to bear in mind with that tactic, is how long can you do it." Ruby shrugged as she taped together the same cardboard Ursa she slashed in half a minute or two ago. "You know, you don't have to repair those cardboard cutouts."

The little hooded huntress looked at him curiously. "Well, what do you suggest?"

"A duel... against me."

She smirked. "You're on!"

* * *

Very far away from the Xiao-Long/Rose Family home, Weiss stood at the center of the descending staircase. On her left, at the top of the steps was Estelle. On her right, also at the top of the steps, was Klein. The two slowly descended down the stairway, Klein taking the first step as they both looked at the ice queen solemnly.

"You're going to speak to her?" Klein asked.

The ice queen sighed. "I'm going to try to."

"Should we be present? Just in case... something happens?" Estelle asked her.

"Sure, I suppose. It won't hurt anything."

The three went down the steps, Weiss taking the lead with Estelle and Klein in tow as the three traveled through the hall. After walking forward through a hallway, they reached a gateway with one path leading to the left and another to the right. They went to the left and continued until they found a glass double door. Weiss breathed in, trying to calm herself, and then opened the doors.

As the trio stepped outside, Weiss looked around the outside of the mansion, now remembering that the garden was bigger than she remembered it being. The garden was this wide open space about the size of a football field, with a sheet of snow covering the bushes, potted trees and the entire white stone ground as a whole. Way in the back of the garden were several glass containers with plants that Weiss wouldn't be able to identify. In the center of the garden was a huge blue stone three tiered fountain with flowing water surrounded by an open square of four rectangular glass cases with blue and white flowers.

The young huntress looked to the left side of the fountain and saw a woman at a glass table with matching chairs setting an empty glass down. The woman's white hair was long and flowed to her waist, tucked back save for her curly strands in front of each of her ears. Her skin was pale was snow and her light blue eyes were sunken with sorrow. She wore a long white dress with an unbuttoned blue vest. Her wrist sleeves weren't buttoned up and one could see the white silk gloves she wore on her hands. Underneath the dress, she wore white tights paired with navy blue snow boots.

Weiss hadn't seen her in over a year, but she knew that her mother, Willow Schnee, had changed while she was gone. After staring at her for a moment, she called out softly, "Mom?"

Mama Schnee turned in her direction. "Winter?"

"No... Mother..." she said, her voice slightly shaking. "It's me... Weiss."

She blinked twice. "Weiss?"

Weiss noticed her on the verge of tears. "Mom... Are you... alright?"

She sobbed. "I... I heard about the attack on Beacon... I thought you perished!" She threw her arms around her daughter.

Weiss returned the gesture. "Mom... I'm so sorry..."

Her mom looked at her sadly, trying to wipe away her tears."For what?"

"That I didn't come to see you sooner."


	21. You'll Be Lifted Up and You'll Be There

Pyrrha Nikos felt like all her luck had run out. Or did the gods or whatever powers that be just hate her? Destiny was so cruel to her.

 _Destiny... what is destiny even? I thought I knew... But now... I don't know what to do... Everyone seems to hate me. Everyone believes I'm a murder. I can't even forgive myself, even though I know it's not my fault. If I was dead, would people actually remember me as a hero? Am I better off dead? I mean, I've been forced to hide myself from the world underneath this cloak, and I've lost everything except for my life. My boyfriend (he's not with me anymore), my teammates and friends have gone their own separate ways, my parents are dead, and my brother is missing. He could be anywhere by now. My confidence, my optimism, my hopes and dreams, and even my pride, which I never cared much about, all gone. No way to defeat the evil that caused this..._

 _I was once thought of as the 'Invincible Girl' by most of society, and sometimes I wanted to believe them. But even then, I know that it's not true. I never once fell into the ruse of believing what everyone thinks I am. Or thought I was. I'm not invincible. I know this._ _They thought I was strong, but in reality, I'm just weak._ _And the fact that I couldn't defeat Cinder only further proves how I'm not the Invincible Girl. Not to mention that Emerald and Mercury got away during the confrontation with the duo at Beacon. I don't know how I managed to survive the Fall of Beacon. What is destiny? Do I even have one? It seems that I don't. Destiny..._ _Destiny doesn't exist._

These were some of the many thoughts that came to her head as she walked for hours, away from the city of Mistral that she once called home, and before she knew it, day turned to night. But to Pyrrha, the night that surrounded her was endless. She wanted some source of light, some small fragment of hope, some new destiny to believe in, but there was nothing left. If someone was to ask her if she believed in destiny a year ago, she would have answered 'yes'. Now, she would just sadly turn away and say, 'No, I don't. Destiny doesn't exist.' Was she doomed to failure this whole time? She honestly believed she was supposed to die and go out as a hero, but she survived. Some say that you either died as a hero, or lived long enough to see yourself become a villain. She wasn't a hero, yet she wasn't a villain. She was nothing.

 _I'm not a hero, yet I'm not a villain either. What am I? Who am I even?_

But really, after all that had happened, what else was she to believe?

As she came to a clearing in the forest, she picked a place to set up her tent and sleeping bag. She crawled into her tent, took off her cloak and gloves, buried herself under her sleeping bag, and sobbed into her pillow. She cried herself to sleep that night. But it wasn't the first time since the fall of Beacon.

The dream began with her surrounded in a dark space and a voice saying in a soft, eerie whisper, "Doesn't it hurt? Doesn't it sting? Doesn't it _burn_?"

Pyrrha knew that voice. She felt her heart pounding in her chest. Sweat slowly formed across her forehead. Her mind began spinning rapidly. _No... It can't be..._

She saw several visions flash by her; Jaune was all alone in a forest at night, training in solitude, using the video of Pyrrha teaching him how to use his sword. As he swung his sword, he broke down into tears... "Pyrrha..."

The next one showed him standing before Cinder with her obsidian scimitar on her shoulder. Jaune stood before the evil maiden, enraged with tears streaming down his face.

"What is wrong with you? How can you be so broken inside... to take so many lives, and then come here and rub it in our faces like it's something to be proud of?! All with that damn smile on your face!" Jaune exclaimed. "I'm gonna make you pay for what you did! Do you hear me?!" Silence. "Well?! _SAY SOMETHING!_ "

After a moment of silence, she asked him, "Who are you again?"

Acting on impulse, he ran and swung his sword towards her, only for her sword to glow with orange flickering energy and stab Jaune right in the gut, shattering his aura before the Arc warrior fell on his knees, collapsing face forward, lying in a pool of blood. Pyrrha wanted to scream, but she couldn't find her voice.

The third and final vision showed Amber having her powers drained by a younger version of Cinder with a strange glove and then being assassinated upon reawakening, but Pyrrha actually was there to see the final end of the previous fall maiden, as well as Cinder's rise to power. The visions ended as quickly as they began. The same voice from before spoke again, "It _does_ burn, doesn't it?" A shadow slowly manifested before becoming physical and tangible. The fall maiden stood before her, orange energy glowing around her eyes as she smirked.

"Cinder..." she spoke in fear.

"You're nothing but a murderess! You deserve to perish!"

She suddenly felt an arrow puncture through her chest, slowly sucking the air out of her lungs. She didn't even see the evil maiden firing the arrow at her, but how? What was happening? "No... no... that's not... true!" she choked in between gasps.

"Is it, Pyrrha Nikos?" Cinder asked. "Do you really believe you're destined for great things? To be a huntress? To be a heroine? To be a maiden?" Pyrrha gave her a sad silent stare. "Here's the answer you're obviously missing; you aren't. You were supposed to die at the top of the tower. So now, you will face your real destiny and die in agony!"

The suffocation stopped before she felt herself falling apart. She fell to her knees and watched in horror, helpless as her hands and legs were engulfed in orange energy, soon spreading to her energy body and disintegrating her from the inside out. She grasped her hands to her head and screamed, but no one could hear her. "No... no... NO!" She found herself dissolving into ashes. "Ahhh!"

She collapsed. And then, there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

Back at the Schnee Family Manor, Weiss was speaking with her mother, trying to seek advice from her.

"And that's what happened." Weiss finished.

Willow looked at her daughter, a tear in her eye. "Oh my gosh..."

While Klein hung his head despondently as Weiss renarrated the fall of Beacon Academy, Estelle started sobbing softly to herself, blowing her nose into her handkerchief. Weiss looked at the grieving duo. But no matter how many times they heard the story, there were never enough tears to compensate for every life lost in the attack.

"I don't understand..." Mama Schnee sniffed. "How could they blame uuuussss?" She started sobbing uncontrollably.

"I know... it hurts... And you wanna know what's worse? Some people from Atlas blame Ironwood for the calamity with the robots. It doesn't make sense..."

She continued sobbing, throwing herself back onto the chair. "This is all too much." She looked to the corner, seeing the servants and then snapped her fingers. "Estelle, retrieve for me another bottle of Merlot."

The maid responded, "Right away, ma'm." But she didn't look very happy about it. Klein sighed in quiet lament.

"Tell me... mother... what should I do?"

"I don't believe there's anything we can do." She turned away, looking at the mountaintops. "The world is changing before our own eyes. I don't think there's anything any of us can do to change the past, or the present. We're walking into a grim future."

"Are you sure you're not just saying that because of...?" Weiss began.

"Yes, I'm sure!" she suddenly snapped. Estelle returned with the wine bottle, and, somewhat reluctantly, handed it to her. Using a special ring on her right hand, she opened the bottle and poured herself a glass and took a few sips. "Don't worry... This is my last one." She chuckled.

Despite her bold and optimistic claim, Weiss and the servants did not feel reassured at all. The trio left sadly, feeling there was nothing they could do. They went back inside, shutting the glass double door behind them.

Weiss threw her back against the nearest wall. "Why do I feel even worse now than when I first came to her?"

Estelle sighed. "This is bad. Really bad."

"Thanks for stating the obvious." Klein said sadly with a hint of sarcasm, his eyes turning red. He then realized his mistake as Estelle's grim expression was worsened with her looking at the floor. His eyes turned back to normal. "Oh sorry."

"It's alright." Estelle smiled. "Still, I suppose it could be worse."

"I don't know." Weiss said, looking down. "It feels like we've hit rock rock bottom."

"Are you sure?" Klein asked her.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it can't get worse."

The two went off in separate directions, leaving Estelle to herself and her thoughts. She went back to her room and shut the door before going to her desk and looking at the last letter she received last week, written three weeks ago.

 _Why hasn't she answered me yet? What's happening?_

* * *

The next thing Pyrrha knew, her brain felt fuzzy. She felt herself wrapped in warm energy, like she was on a cloud. She felt a bright intense light on her eyes, causing her to wake up before the beam of green light faded into nothing. She was surrounded in a place of white light around her. Puddles of light, warm air that wasn't overly hot, dry or suffocating, this tranquil atmosphere that seems like it could fade it any moment. It seemed so surreal... So... unreal. Where was she?

"Am I dead?" she asked.

"You're not dead." a familiar voice answered. She turned around to see an orange-haired girl with a pink bow, undamaged in any way. "Quite far from it."

Pyrrha felt herself tear up. "Penny?" She looked at her, nodding up and down. The red-haired warrior blinked twice. "How is this possible? Is this... a mirage?"

"No. I'm here, as a spirit in your dreams. But not for long."

She ran to the robotic girl and hugged her, sobbing onto the left shoulder of her metal body. "Penny... I'm so sorry... I never meant for this to happen."

"It's okay. I know. And I know it's not your fault." She looked at Pyrrha's sad eyes. "I heard the promise you made upon claiming my swords as your own. That's really sweet and sincere of you to say."

"I know... but... I fear that I can't stop her. I don't know what to do..." The tears fell down the warrior's face. "I'm lost and confused. My teammates... my friends... my family... in one way or another... are gone..."

The robot girl gasped. "They're not... dead, are they?"

"No. Not all of them." She sniffed. "My parents are dead. My brother is missing..." The gladiator girl wiped away her tears. "My friends and teammates are alive. But they're not with me right now." She turned away sadly. "I'm all alone."

"You're not alone."

The fallen warrior turned back to the little girl. "And how do you know that?"

"Because they're still in your heart, and I'm sure that one day, you'll see them again."

"Penny... tell me something..." Pyrrha said, tears still in her eyes, slowly falling down her face. "If you were in my shoes right now, what would you do?"

Penny blinked. "You're asking me for advice?"

"Yeah... I mean... I have every reason to give up, but I know I can't..."

"Well... If I were you, I would travel around the kingdom. Go from one city to another. Continue doing good deeds. Maybe you'll find out more about yourself and find not only your missing brother, but your destiny as well."

Pyrrha hung her head in sorrow and turned away. "I don't even believe in destiny anymore. I feel like I shouldn't even be alive. I'm just... dead inside." She looked at her fallen friend ruefully. "Tell me, Penny, is there a different way to die?"

"I... don't know..." She hesitantly answered. "But don't give up, Pyrrha. Now more than ever, the world needs you."

Pyrrha blinked. "You really think so?"

"I know so." Penny's form began to flicker. "My time here is almost up. I'm afraid I must go. But before I leave, I want you to remember these words; 'It is not in the stars to hold our _destiny_ but in ourselves.'"

Her spirit slowly vanished, fading with the wind. Pyrrha ran after it. "No, wait! Penny! Penny!"

She woke up, gasping for air. She felt a little more alive. Things might have been bad, but they would get better. Somehow. "Penny..." She sniffed, putting her hands to her heart. "Thank you."

The girl crawled out of her tent. The sun was rising, illuminating the land. As the orange and small patches of yellow colors printed the sky, peering through the few clouds, she felt the warmth of the sun on her face as she stood up, briefly smiling for a moment. A small fire, a tiny fragment of renewed hope, warmed up her heart and cast a small light into the world. It wasn't going to be easy moving on, but she told herself that everything would be okay in the end.

 _I'll be okay._

She got out her cloak and gloves and put them back on. It was a new day, and with it, came a new opportunity to make things right. But she had so many questions to answer; What would she do? Where would she go? And who was she?

 _I've never really been myself to begin with. I've been an object, loved and revered from afar, unable to reveal how I really feel inside. I couldn't save myself._ She put her hood up. _But maybe I can save everyone else._


	22. Fake it if You Don't Belong

Author's Notes:

-Happy belated Valentine's Day! (Or Singles Awareness Day, depending on which category you fall into.) I'd like to say that this chapter involves lots of love and romance, but then that would be lying. Or, as Mercury puts it, "It's false advertising!" And I'm not one for lying too much, unlike Roosterteeth. (Yeah, I'm looking at you CRWBY!) I can't tell you too much without spoiling it, but I'll tell you that it does involve a certain feline and a brief glimpse into the past.

-Thanks to bwburke94 for helping me catch and correct that error in ch. 9. (I didn't even realize it was incorrect.)

-Looks like with the publishing of this chapter, I've broken the record for longest story in terms of word count. Looks like I've really improved with this fic. I don't think any of my other stories will break this record I'm setting. And we're nowhere near done! Hope you're ready for more!

Now then, let's get going!

* * *

After several days of trying to find a way into the Black Key, Blake had a way in to speak to 'Senior'. Unfortunately, it was through a wedding reception and she had nothing nice to wear. Not to mention she looked like a mess. So here she was in the empty bathroom of an adjacent building, one hour before the event started, not knowing who the lucky lovebirds even were, trying to prepare for an event that she was not even invited to. According to what she overheard two invitees speak about earlier, who were most likely friends of the bride and/or groom, the bodyguards that normally examine the invitations or IDs at the door were not going to be there. This left her the perfect opportunity to sneak in unnoticed.

She sprayed on some perfume over herself just to be sure no one would smell the sweat and grime accumulated on her body over the last week. Then she got a purple oval shaped hairbrush and started to brush out her hair while looking at herself in the mirror. Since she forgot about it for numerous days, it was a huge rat's nest. Because her hair so long and thick, she started on the underside and then did the top, pulling out a lot hair out of her brush. She groaned as she continued doing this. She breathed in and tried to calm herself. By the time she was done with it, it had taken 30 minutes to get it tangle-free. Good grief.

The catwoman looked at her attire. She needed a better option. Something nicer. This was not gonna work. She took off her shoes, black and purple stockings, her vest, and the detachable sleeve and put the last three items into her backpack, leaving her in a white shirt and shorts. She put her low-heeled boots back on and took off the ribbons off her wrists, placing them aside. She grabbed a folded white bedsheet from her backpack and unfolded it by holding onto the ends and waving it up and down with her arms. Once it was unfolded, she draped it around herself to resemble a robe, carefully folding and tucking it in so it wouldn't fall off. She took the ribbons and tied them together to form a single chord. Then she tied the sheet off with said cord around her under-bust in the form of a three layer cord around the upper part of her chest, hoping to make it look more like a dress.

But she couldn't even convince herself that it looked like an actual dress. She looked down at her outfit and sighed to herself. She thought she looked pretty. More like pretty ridiculous. She looked like exactly what she was; a young woman sneaking into a formal event she wasn't invited to.

 _Well, it's better than the everyday clothes I guess. Weiss would be able to pull off the wedding reception attire easily with her daily attire, and maybe Ruby as well. If she lost the hood..._

She knelt down and looked around in her backpack to see if she actually had any jewelry or accessories. As she rummaged through her backpack, she found a small black box. She didn't remember what was inside it, so she grabbed it and opened it, letting the memories come back to her. Inside the box was a sterling silver ring with a circular ruby in the center and three small black diamonds on the left and right sides of the ruby. But as gorgeous as it was, it had some bittersweet memories tied to it. She closed her eyes and remembered how she received it.

It was a cold and windy day, the city of Mantle was covered in goosebumps. Blake stood on the rooftop on the building in a black pull over jacket with a dark grey paw print, her arms folded and a dissatisfied look on her face. Adam joined her on the rooftop, but she didn't give him a passing glance.

"You ready Blake?" She walked further away from him, not saying anything. Her visible cat ears dropped in sorrow and anger. "Look, I know you're angry, and you have every right to be angry with me, but I didn't mean to hurt you..." She still gave him the silent treatment even if her expression shifted to a neutral tone. He sighed. "I love you, Blake. I'm really sorry." She looked at him with a mixture of sadness and curiosity as he got out a black box. "I got you something." He opened the box, showing the ring to her. She looked at it in awe. "It's a promise ring. It's a commitment to our relationship, and how much you mean to me."

She blinked in awe. "It's beautiful."

"Can you forgive me?"

For a moment, she was silent. Then she smiled and nodded. "Yes. That was a week ago. And this is now."

He slid the ring onto her left ring finger and held her hand before turning to look into her eyes. "You mean everything to me Blake." He gently embraced her. "If something happened to you or I lost you... I'd... I'd probably lose my mind."

She threw his arms around him. She believed him. She trusted him. The catgirl looked down below, seeing Jacques Schnee, the Schnee Dust Company board members and a huge shipment of dust arrive at the scene via a bullhead. The businessmen walked out of the plane and into her line of sight. "It looks like they're here."

"Well, then. Let's move."

As Adam got out his weapon, Blake got out her weapon and mask. She looked at the design for a brief moment before donning it. Her mask was similar to Adam's, only her's was painted black on the left and had three vertical claw mark lines on the right side. After putting it on, she got out Gambol Shroud, looked at her partner in crime, nodded in unison with him and dropped down into the fray.

She opened her eyes, returning to the present, the box still in her hands. She took the ring and held it in her right hand.

"Well, Adam Taurus, I once believed that you would never hurt me again, and I was wrong." She put away the box and donned the ring where Adam placed it before, hoping it would draw attention away from her makeshift dress. "It's a shame I'll be using it to obliterate you."

She looked at her scroll for the time; 5:50pm.

 _Ten minutes til the event starts... Better get a move on..._

She stood up, grabbed her weapon and hid it on her back underneath the sheet dress. She then grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulders, attempting to hide it with her hair, and made her way towards the Black Key.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the forest, far away from the city limits, there were two hunters; a boy and a girl. The hunters were in a treehouse about the size of the apartment they once stayed in. The wooden floor was decorated with forest green rugs and a small pink one. There was a small kitchenette, a hallway leading to a bathroom and a storage area. Over in the upper right corner from the entrance to the treehouse were two hammocks for sleeping or lazing around. A small light fixture and fan hang from the ceiling. The whole thing was powered by kinetic energy in the form of bicycling. The girl was on that said bike, sweating and panting.

"This is not working." Nora got up and wearily plopped onto the couch. "I forgot how hard it is powering up the treehouse. 30 consistent minutes at 20 miles per hour for 24 hours."

"Just be thankful it's only once a day." Ren chuckled. "You know, while hunting for game today, a thought occurred to me."

She laid her arms across her chest. "And what would that be?"

"We're 17 years old, and we are able to apply for jobs."

"So, what you're saying is that we should both get jobs."

"Pretty much." Ren said, starting to make stew from the rabbit they caught earlier. "That's... not a problem, is it?"

"Yeah, I mean, no! It's just..." Nora hesitated. "I'm worried that... with my wild personality and slight temper, I might be a bit too hot-headed and get fired. Also, I find doing all of the common civilian jobs a difficult and daunting prospect. What if I fail?"

"I think you can keep yourself in check. Being a huntsman or huntress is hard. If you can do something hard, I think you can do something easy."

"Yeah, you do have a point there. But what about us having an address that's off the grid?"

"Hmm..." Ren pondered to himself. "That might be a problem. We could lie, but if we do and we're caught, we'd be in huge trouble and no one would ever hire us."

She put up her arm and tapped her fingers on the side of the couch. "What was it that Pyrrha said all those months ago? 'You can't get it wrong if it's the truth'?"

Ren nodded. "You're right. We should just be honest. Who knows? Maybe they'll even have some sympathy on us. Now for the first thing; getting job applications. That is our first priority for tomorrow."

* * *

Back in the city, Blake had just entered the Black Key. As she entered through the door of the one story building, she made note of her surroundings; the floor was made of shiny black title to match the ceiling. The amethyst colored walls were decorated with white ribbons and trios of balloons in blue, pink and purple on both ends of the ribbon. Overhead, a crystal chandelier lit up the ballroom like the sun. There was a door leading to another room on the right while the center of the place had a lightly colored wood dance floor about the size of a 10 x 10 grid.

Then she looked at the attire of the partygoers; some of the ladies wore cocktail dresses in a variety of hues while others donned ballgowns, the men wore suits and ties, mainly in black, although there was one guy dressed in blue. The lovely couple in the very back with a rectangle shaped table all to themselves, whom Blake recognized as the bride and groom, both wore white. The groom wore a fake red rose on the left side of his white tuxedo and the bride was dressed in a mermaid style wedding dress with a silver lining design on the top of the dress.

Blake suddenly felt nervous. She shouldn't be here. She didn't know anyone here. She was nothing more than a faker, a pretender, an outsider. Still, she had a mission. She had to find this 'Senior' guy and ask him where the warehouse was. As she got lost in her thoughts, she ended up walking right into a woman who, upon seeing the clumsy girl, shoved her to the ground and walked away. Blake groaned as she tried to process what just happened.

"Are you alright?" a guy asked.

The guy in the blue suit smiled at her as he helped her up. "I'm fine. Thanks."

He examined her attire. "That is... an interesting dress you have there."

She chuckled, trying to keep the nervousness in her voice to a minimum. "Thank you. It was a last minute setup."

"I can tell. I'm guessing something happened with the previous one making it unwearable?"

She scratched the back of her head and laughed, trying to calm her nerves. "Yeah, let's go with that."

"You know," he began, looking at her with a hopeful smile, "you're kinda cute."

"Don't even think about it." She showed him the promise ring, extending her left hand outward. "I'm taken."

"Oh, I see." He looked around. "And where is your beau?"

"He got sick and couldn't come." she lied.

 _Ha. Little does he know that I'm plotting to assassinate him._

"Aw, that's a shame."

"Yeah, it is..." She looked at him curiously. _Wow, I sound like a vengeful seductress._ "So do you know where a guy by the alias of 'Senior' is?"

"Senior? You mean Donovan Xiong?" He asked. Blake nodded. "Why would you be looking to speak to him?"

"Important confidential matter."

"Keeping me on my toes, are you?"

She scoffed. "Why would I tell you? You're just a stranger."

"You make a good point there." he said. "You're not much of a dancer, are you?"

"I am when I feel like it." she answered. "So where is he?"

"He's over there." he mentioned to a guy at a table all by himself.

"Thanks."

Donovan Xiong was a guy with dark brown hair and matching eyes. His pale skin was mostly covered up by his shiny purple suit with a red glittering necktie, paired with black polished dress shoes and a black cane with a purple dome. He slowly spun his cane in his hand before putting it down upon noticing Blake's presence.

"Oh hello there darling."

"Aren't you a bit young to have a nickname like Senior?" she asked.

"If I had a dollar everytime someone asked me that..." He chuckled. "I'd be filthy rich instead of upper middle class! Ah ha ha!" He smiled warmly. "So, since you've found me, I'm guessing you want some information."

"From this map," she said, getting it out. "I've heard there's supposed to be a White Fang warehouse in or around Fiti. Do you know where it is?"

"I do, but..." He give her a questioning look. "Why would you be asking about the White Fang? You don't want to get tangled up in them, and I imagine you don't want to fight them."

"Look, between you and me," Blake glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "I'm hunting down the White Fang. More specifically, Vale's leader. I've had years of combat training and was a student at Beacon Academy. That is... before it fell."

"I know it's none of my business, but... Why are you targeting them? Trying to take down an entire terrorist organization is a very big job for one semi-pro huntress."

"The White Fang not only destroyed the school, which caused me to lose the friends I thought of as family, the loss of several lives and large scale destruction and devastation, the leader of Vale's White Fang branch hurt my best friend." She clinched her fists, suppressing tears. "And for that, I will never forgive him!"

"Ah, a tale of vengeance. A personal matter... Hmm... Alright, I'll help." Blake took a notepad and a pen. "About three miles from the main port, there's a warehouse in a forest clearing. Once you get to the port, facing the direction of the city, go north for one block. You should be close to Ivy Vine Park. From there, walk along the path until you see a dead oak tree with three vertical slash marks. If you face west, you'll see bunch of trees less than 50 feet from you. That is the forest you must go into. Once you reach the perimeter of the forest, go forward until you see another tree with the same slash marks from earlier. Take 22 steps to the north and you'll find another one. Then go east for two miles and you should find a clearing with an abandoned warehouse."

She finished writing down abbreviated forms of the directions before responding with, "Thank you, good sir."

"You're welcome, and good luck young lass. I hope you know what you're doing."

She smiled and left the building without saying another word. As she left the Black Key, her visage turned to an upset, disapproving look. She thought, _I know what I'm doing. Adam attacked the academy, he hurt my best friend, and I will make things right. Now to get out of these ridiculous clothes and get to that warehouse._

* * *

Later that evening, Sun had arrived at the Black Key. He looked around at the entrance, seeing if Blake was there, but he didn't see her anywhere. As he ventured into the venue, he looked around and noticed a lot of people staring and glaring at him.

A woman in a green strapless dress holding a glass of wine scoffed at him. "That is the gaudiest outfit I have seen all night."

"I don't know." a guy next to her, presumably her date, added as he came up to her as she took a few sips. "The sheet dress we saw earlier was pretty tasteless."

She swallowed her drink. "At least the woman in the sheet dress put some effort into her outfit. This guy looks like he came wearing the clothes he slept in!"

The monkey tailed faunus scratched his head and tilted it slightly to the right. "Sheet dress?"

"Yeah, a woman with amber eyes and black hair wore a big white sheet as a dress around her body."

"If ya ask me, she looked like a poor woman's bejeweled queen bee." the man spoke.

Sun gestured towards him. "Did she have a big black bow in her hair?"

The guy nodded in confirmation. "That's the one."

"Where did she go?"

"Don't know, but before she left, she was speaking to Senior. Don't really know..."

And that was all Sun heard as he swiftly ran off, hoping to try and find the boss. Unfortunately he literally ran into someone, unable to stop himself in time.

He held his hand to forehead before realizing that he unintentionally knocked someone down. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

The man in the purple shiny suit chuckled as he got up. "It's quite alright."

He extended his hand to help him up. "Do you know where I can find a guy with the name 'Senior?'"

The boss of the club smirked. "Looks like I'm the most popular guy in Fiti tonight. You're the second one to come running to me for questions."

"How did you know that?"

He smirked. "I'm just very good at figuring out people's intentions. So what do you want to know?"

"Have you seen this girl?" Sun showed him a picture of Blake.

"Funny enough, I saw her earlier. Is she a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, she is."

"Then I suppose I can tell you about her motives. She is going after the White Fang, more specifically, the leader of Vale's branch, but she has no idea where he is."

"So where is she going?"

He then told the monkey faunus what he said earlier to Blake.

"Good luck, young man. I hope you and your friend know what you're getting yourselves into."

"Thank you!"

He sped out of the club and felt a surge of hope run through his heart. He was so close to finding her! He ran right to the port, ignoring the looks he got from strangers as he zipped right by them. As he reached the port, he tried very hard to remember the directions he was given.

 _Alright, go one block north and then go to... what park was it again? Ivy Vine Park? Yeah, that's it._

As he walked through the city, he noticed numerous happy couples. The first one was a young woman and a young man holding hands. The second one was a slightly couple in their 20's with the woman wearing an engagement ring. The third and final one that really got him was a couple pushing a baby carriage around. The poor monkey faunus felt tortured. Why couldn't that loving, happy relationship have been existent with him and Blake?

"Are the deities of love giving luck to everyone but me?" he asked.

 _I love her... but does she feel the same?_

The monkey king tried to shake those thoughts. Before he knew it, he got to the park and started quickly walking along the path. The stone path led through a vibrant park with a few trees, and a stone fountain far off to the left in the center of the park. He was fortunate that so few people were here and that they paid him little attention.

 _Oh man... I've been searching for Blake for so long, there's one thing I didn't even consider... how's she even going to react to me finding her? I'm sure she'll understand if I just tell her that I wanted to help her defeat the White Fang._ _Don't give up, Sun. You're so close!_

Eventually, he found the tree that Senior mentioned. Three vertical slash marks present, just like when Blake showed him the marks at the White Fang convention they snuck into. Damn, that was so long ago. Who knew that he would be chasing after a shadow? He ran forward into the forest, this time being seen by no one.

 _Almost there..._


	23. Road to Nowhere

A dark-haired girl walked through the forest, going east as she was directed. She was back in her normal clothes, the sheet tucked away and still had the ring on her finger. In her rush to get to the warehouse, she forgot to take it off and put it back in the box. She sighed; she wasn't going to mess with it right now. She had more important matters to deal with.

"Hopefully, this guy's answers aren't a dead end."

After a few minutes of walking, she came to a clearing with a white warehouse. She looked around, noticing no guards or patrol agents. But they easily could have been inside. She looked at the walls of the place, in which she noticed the white paint rusting and fading away. She didn't take it as a good sign. But then she noticed the claw marks. They were once here. Were they still here? If not, what, if anything, was left?

To be on the safer side, Blake snuck in through the back entrance. As she entered the door and tried to walk forward only to be snagged back. That's when she realized a piece of her hair was caught on a bolt in a metal rod. She worked with her fingers and then yanked her hair out of the bolt. She lost a few strands, but told herself it wouldn't matter. Who else would come here? She rubbed the back of her head and looked around, but no one was there. Not a single person, living or dead. The place was mostly empty, it's cold black title floor mostly clear, save for a few bales of hay. No crates, no traces, no leads as to where they went. Not even a map or a note indicating anything of their whereabouts.

 _What now?_

The catwoman slumped her back against the wall. She was back at square one. She sighed, inhaling deeply through her nostrils. The perfume she wore for the wedding reception had worn off and she realized just how horrible she reeked of odor. And that was the least of her problems. She exhaled sharply and stood up, deciding to vacate the abandoned warehouse. She went out the way she came in and went back into the forest, going in a different direction from where she came.

* * *

A few minutes later, the 'monkey king' arrived at the warehouse. Unlike Blake, Sun did not bother to sneak in. He busted through the doors, creating a hole in them as he entered the dark warehouse. Not bothering to conjure a light source, he looked around, trying to find something. But the ground was bare. He sniffed the air, smelling hay... and something else. He walked to the metal rod, looked closely at it and found a few strands of Blake's hair.

 _She was here. Where did she go?_ He pocketed the hair strands in a plastic bag and left the warehouse. _She couldn't have gotten far._

Turning in the northwest direction, Sun continued searching for Blake, trying to use his faunus senses to aid him. As he ran through the forest trying to find her, he thought he heard footsteps in the other direction. He turned the other way and tried to follow those steps, and as he ran in the direction of the sound, he could see a visible shadow on the ground. The shadow was noticeably bigger than the figure it belonged to, hanging upside down from a figure in the woods over by him. He noticed that the figure was wearing a bow- or was it... cat ears? Believing the shadow belonged to Blake, he chased after it.

He ran along the ground, himself parallel to the shadow. The shadow leapt away, leaving him baffled as he followed the footsteps. He raced into the forest after it, trying to find the shadow by tracing the sounds of the figure's footsteps. His mind starting racing with thoughts as he dashed through the forest.

 _Is this really Blake? If so, what should I say to her? What if it's not her? What if she- Dugh!_

As he got lost in thought, he ended up hitting his head straight into a tree. His head spun as he heard the steps fade into nothing. He groaned, got up and moved around, trying to get his head to stop pounding. He lost her scent and had run out of leads as to where Blake had gone. Had he truly gone mad? He did not know anymore. Tired and exhausted, he leaned back against the nearest tree and felt more lonely than ever.

He sighed in defeat. There was no way out of this.

* * *

Meanwhile, Blake had gotten out of the forest and checked herself into a cheap motel room. Her normal outfit had been washed and was currently drying via fan current air in the bathroom. Wearing a black miniskirt and a black shoulder strap top as pajamas and a white towel on her head holding up her hair, she sat on the bed sadly, her knees curled to her chest and her arms linked around her legs. The towel hair bundle fell down, so she ruffled her hair with the towel before tossing it aside, her cat ears seen by no one and her hair damp from the shower she had just taken. She turned her neck to the left, staring out the window at the city below. She sighed sadly to herself and turned back to face the wall in front of her before looking at the ring she forgot to take off earlier. It was supposed to be a promise of love, but now it served as a reminder of a broken promise. She took off the ring and placed it back in the box, putting it back in her bag.

She took the ribbon she had wearing for several months in her right hand. As she held the ribbon, her cat ears drooped in sorrow. Could she really even hide her true self from the world? Could she really even stop Adam Taurus? She couldn't even find the thrice-damned White Fang leader. And even then, if she found him and executed him for his crimes, would she really be able to stop the White Fang? Could she really undo so many years, decades, and even centuries of hate and discrimination. She remembered what he said to her...

"This could've been _our_ day! Can't you see that!?"

"I never wanted _this_! I wanted equality! I wanted _peace_!"

She raised her sword, the blade folding into a shotgun, and fired away at Adam, who blocked both bullets with his sword as he retaliated, "What you want is _impossible_!"

Was he right?

Sighing in sorrow as she returned to the present, she put the ribbon back on. It had been a long day, and the night even longer. She stood up and looked at the city below her. The lights in the city shone through the night, yet it wasn't bright enough to trick her brain into thinking it was day, which was nice. She needed some sleep after the day's events. But with her emotions tormenting her, was she ever going to get any rest? Closing the curtains and shutting out the light, she slumped her back against the wall. Lonely and lost, she felt like feelings had failed her. This was it. She had reached the end. She was right at square one. All of her efforts seemed to have been for nothing.

Both Blake and Sun were in their separate locations, both thinking of how they had reached the end of the road. A road to nowhere. No leads on finding their desires, no way to fulfill their goals, no rest, no love, no hero to rise above, no way to fix what was broken, both completely alone. They were so so close, yet so very far away.

* * *

Meanwhile, a small fisherman's ship was sailing through night. It was a small boat with an even smaller group aboard it; the ship's pilot, the navigator, and the scientist. The navigator was still asleep within the shared cabin, while the captain was still awake to navigate and be on the lookout for potential threats. The scientist stood at the backward edge of the boat, looking back as the sea slowly passed by him.

 _Alright... Hopefully, I should be able to get back to her domain within the next four days. Time for a brief sanity check. Wallet, keys, scroll, post-it notes, pens, check to all of these. Wait a second..._ He checked his pockets, found that something wasn't there. _Where is it? Where is it?!_

"Oh no... Don't tell me I lost it..." he mumbled to himself.

"Is everything alright, Mr. Watts?" the captain asked.

"It's Doctor Watts. And everything's fine. Just do your job."

"Yes, sir."

He internally groaned to himself.

 _The boss is going to be disappointed. I could make another, but it would take time. Time I can't afford to waste. I don't get it, where could I have lost it?_

* * *

Many days had passed in the Mistralian wilds. By now, Pyrrha was very far from the city. Although she encountered Grimm at sporadic times when she was upset, going through the stages of grief and mourning, she still moved forward. However, she was growing tired by the minute. She sat down on a big rock, breathing to calm and reassure herself and regain her lost energy from the fight earlier. After doing this for a few minutes, she looked around. There were two differences patches of dense forests, whereas the rock she was on and the vertical column of grass surrounding it was a gateway between the two woods.

Believing she was alone, she said to herself, "Well, you're going to be okay. It won't be easy, but you'll make it. Somehow..."

"You seem like the optimistic type." a feminine voice spoke. It belonged a woman underneath a forest green cloak. "If only I had all the faith that you do."

Pyrrha dryly chuckled. "You really believe I'm the optimistic type?"

"From what I can tell, yes." she answered. "Then again, you could easily be hiding a sad, tormented look underneath that red cloak of yours."

"You're not wrong." She got up, stretching her legs. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what brings you here?

"I was on my way to Kuchinashi." the cloaked figure spoke. "I notice that you don't want your identity revealed, but why are you wearing that cloak?"

She hung her head in sorrow. "I was wrongly blamed for an incident. Many people believe I'm a murderer when in reality, I never meant to hurt her, or anyone else for that matter."

"That's exactly the same reason I'm wearing this cloak. A group of people went against my orders, I'm being blamed for a huge incident that wasn't my doing, and now there's a price on my head."

"That's even worse than my predicament. Even though some people want me dead, no force of authority has labeled me as a criminal or placed a bounty for my head."

The figure laughed without humor. "You're lucky then. They've labeled me as a criminal."

"Looks like we're both being blamed for incidents that aren't our fault."

"It seems we are in the same boat. I know it's none of my business, but underneath that cloak, who are you?"

Pyrrha mused to herself. "Hmm... Tell ya what; if we make a truce, agree not to kill or hurt each other, then we may let our hoods down and keep our identities secret from all other persons."

Underneath the hood, the woman nodded. "That sounds fair to me."

"On three." They remained still. "One..." The duo moved their right hand up. "two..." They softly clasped the hood of their cloaks with their right hands. "three."

Their hoods fell down, revealing their identities. The woman saw Pyrrha Nikos, and she saw a face she had seen on a poster.

She blinked in surprise. "Maura Celandine?"

The leader of Mistral's White Fang branch smiled. "Guilty as charged."

The gladiator girl nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I can understand why you would want to hide yourself from prying eyes."

Maura smirked. "I figured I was in the presence of a human, but who knew it was you? The Mistral Champion?" She chuckled. "Are we really all that different?"

She softly grasped her right wrist with her hand. "I wouldn't say so."

"So you respect faunus?"

"Oh yes, absolutely." Pyrrha nodded to reaffirm her statement, sliding her hand down to let it rest on the other. "I judge people based on their character, not their looks or species. I feel like what a lot of the White Fang is doing is wrong, but I suppose there's two sides to every coin."

The leader nodded. "You are wise beyond your years."

"That's a new one. I've been called strong, untouchable, even invincible before. But wise? I suppose that is true, even if I never thought about it. If I was wiser, I'd actually know what I'm doing as opposed to just going down a road to nowhere."

"You're trying to find your way, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am." Pyrrha admitted.

"Hmm... I haven't done this in quite a while, but back my younger days, I was a tarot card reader. I'll do you a reading for ten Lien."

"I don't know..."

"Alright, I'll be nice. Five Lien."

"Sure. Why not?" She handed the money to her. "It's not like I have anything to lose."

"But first, let us get to a more deserted location where I can easily set my cards down."

The two cloaked figures walked through the forest to a small clearing with a lone tree stump. The green cloaked figure got out a set of tarot cards. She shuffled the cards and held them facedown in her hands.

"These cards will foretell your future." Maura said. "Choose three of these cards with your instincts, and we'll see what the future holds."

Within her hands were 12 cards, each having the crest show a dark green background with a square outline and an octagram in the center. With her instincts, Pyrrha choose the one the second to last one on the left, the right-most card, and then the card right in the middle.

 _What will these cards tell me?_

The faunus picked up the first card, examined it and showed it to her. "So for your first card, we have the ace of pentacles. This is a card of opportunity, prosperity and new venture. I've always found this card to be of continuity, and what goes around comes around. Who knows? A missed opportunity may even come back to you."

"Hmm..."

"For the second card, oh yikes." She showed it to her. "A three of swords. This is a card of heartbreak, emotional pain, sorrow, grief and hurt." Maura paused. "You told me about how you were falsely accused of murder, but is there anything else that is causing your heart to break apart into pieces, as if it was being slashed by a sword?"

A wave of memories flashed over her; the shock and horror of accidentally killing Penny, the downfall of Beacon Academy, leaving her teammates (especially Jaune) behind, the struggle of finding her destiny, the destruction of her house, the death of her parents, and not being able to find her missing brother. She slowly sighed with a troubled look on her face. "More than you can imagine."

"So you have felt all of these recently?"

She nodded. "Unfortunately."

"Sucks to say that it may stick around. For how long it will stay-that I do not know."

Pyrrha sighed. "And for the third card, we have the star. This is a card of hope, faith, purpose, renewal and spirituality. A card of seeing the smallest fragment of hope, the tiniest of light in the world. I'm guessing you've lost almost everything, including your hopes and dreams? Am I right?"

"You're... not wrong. I mean... for a brief while, I was dead inside."

"But you're not dead. Physically or emotionally. You are still alive, and you can find your destiny, if you just keep moving forward."

"This is a lot to take in..."

"Try not to overthink it." Maura advised. "Sometimes these cards may have more than meaning. Now before you leave, I have one last piece of advice to give you; if you can, find a friend to lean on."

She blinked. "A friend?"

"Yes." She titled her head towards her. "Don't you have a friend to count on?"

Then Pyrrha remembered... She got out the slip of paper she kept in her left pocket and saw the top address. "Jaune..."

She felt her heart pound out its chest and tears about to spill from her eyes. The gladiator girl made a grueling effort to keep them from falling. Maura looked at Pyrrha, nodding up and down. "You know what must be done. Go to him. Embrace him and never let him go."

"Maura?" The White Fang Mistral leader turned to the champion. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Good luck out there."

"And to you as well."

Lifting her hood up once again, Pyrrha ran off into the woods, the tears in her eyes fading. She wasn't going to cry; not yet. There was work to be done. It didn't matter how far she had to run; she would find him.


	24. Lesson Number One

Author's Notes:

-To anyone who remembered and took the flashback sister-said-which-line challenge from ch. 15 (or may encounter it in the future well after I post the answers), here they are;

"Good luck Jaune!"-Acacia

"Honestly, I don't believe this will end well for you. But good luck anyway!"-Azura

"Don't worry, Jaune! Just fake it til ya make it!"-Indigo

"Jaune Arc, you're an even bigger imbecile than I thought. If I were a betting woman, I'd wager that you'll be out of Beacon in two weeks or less."-Rouge

"I know you're trying to become a huntsman, but you should have just agreed to take lessons from me. It would have been a smarter, safer and wiser decision."-Tangerine

"Don't be so mean, you two! I believe in him. Good luck, Jaune!"-Amethyst

"The odds are against you, but if you work hard enough, you just might pull it off. Good luck, big bro!"-Emerald

Don't worry if you missed it or got them wrong, it was just a little test of your brainpower. Also makes you think, what does their farewell line say about Jaune's relationship with each sister? What does it say about their character? You don't have to answer that.

Anyway, let's get back to the story!

* * *

It had been a week since Jaune arrived at the Arc family home. He had some trouble settling into a routine of chores, mainly because Rouge was being a royal pain. It hadn't helped that he slept horribly the previous night, having slight bags under his eyes. The young man sighed as he dragged himself upstairs, taking Indigo's laundry to her room. The light yellow wall has part of the big hallway, with numerous doors leading to various rooms on both sides of the second floor. As he reached the top of the stairs, the young blond looked at the clock on the wall to the right of the door in front of him; it's second timer making it to the top, signaling it was 9 am.

 _How am I going to do this? Indigo likes sleeping in, just like Rouge. How do I make sure I don't wake her up?_ He internally sighed. _Maybe I should have started by mopping the floors. No wait, that wouldn't work well with mom and dad eating breakfast in the kitchen before they go to their respective jobs._

He internally sighed once more as he turned to the right and went to the second door on the left. Slowly but surely, he crept open Indigo's door, trying very hard not to wake her up. The slate blue walls of her room were mostly bare, save for a picture of her family and a poster of a spider on a web to the right and a fly to the left, drawn in the style of a comic book.

In a big speech bubble in the middle of the poster, it read, _'Will you come into my parlor?'_ said the spider to the fly. _'Tis the prettiest little parlor that you ever did spy.'_

Looking away from the poster, he turned to see his little sister asleep with her left arm on the pillow, the rest of her body covered underneath a warm, fuzzy dark purple blanket and a white sheet with vertical light blue thin stripes. She looked so serene. Jaune hated the thought of waking her up. He thought of setting her clothes on her bed by dumping them there, but he'd wake her up if her did that. He gently set the basket down and put her stuff on her desk in small batches at a time. He then picked up the basket, looking at his sleeping sister one last time before he stepped out of the room. Holding the basket by the handle with his left hand, he silently shut the door with his other, exhaling a sigh of relief as he did so.

Standing there, as if she was waiting for him, the tough tomboy asked him, "Still having trouble balancing everything?"

"No. I mean..." He sighed. "Yes. I am. Tangerine, I haven't got a clue how mom and dad did it all."

The tough tomboy smirked. Her black eyes had healed, as well as her bruises and cuts. She still had the scar on her right arm, which she made no effort to conceal. She leaned back against the wall with one of her legs up, folding her arms simultaneously. "Just be thankful it isn't all the loads in one day. That would suck."

"I meant all of the chores simultaneously, but yeah, it could be worse." He looked at his older sister sincerely. "Hey um, Tangerine?"

Her expression slightly softened. "Yeah?"

With his free arm, he put his hand over his elbow and slowly moved it down his arm. "I realize that... I may not be worthy... and that I probably should have asked you about this a long time ago, but... would you... still be willing to help me... with combat training?"

"Hmm... Normally I wouldn't, but since you asked so nicely, I'll do it."

"Really? Thank you! When do we start?"

Tangerine was about to answer when suddenly, she heard the sound of a door opening. Indigo appeared before them, very grumpy and displeased. "Could you take this conversation elsewhere? I'm trying to sleep."

She shut her door. Jaune grumbled. "Aw rats." He sighed. "So much for not waking her up."

* * *

Meanwhile, Ren and Nora had filled out numerous job applications, so now there was the matter of preparing for the potential interviews. The two were at a clothing store in the mall, trying to find suitable attire for said interviews. Ren already found his outfit, but he still needed nice black dress shoes. As the young man sat there on the floor, trying on shoes, his partner in crime came out of a nearby dressing stall, wearing a knee-length black dress with long sleeves and a collared neckline.

"You look really nice." He got up and started walking a few steps in the shoes to see how comfortable they were. "Just perfect."

"I know this for getting a job, but... does it have to be black?" Nora asked. "Black just isn't my color."

"Hmm... I think it looks good on you. Black is the most common color, commonly considered the best for formal events and business. But if I suppose we could find something in a lighter shade, like maybe a cream color." Ren sat down on the bench, took the dress shoes off and put on his "I've finally found the right shoes though. I've got my outfit, we've both found our shoes, but we still need you a dress that is both appropriate for business and not black. Hmm..."

And so began Nora trying on many more dresses, with Ren giving commentary for each one. First was a bright blue knee length dress paired with a light jacket as a coverup. The second one was a light brown leopard print dress. The third one was a crimson dress with a slight wave-like v-neck. The fourth one was a white dress with a floral pattern of pink, green and blue.

"No, too bright."

"Too patterned."

"Too flashy."

"Pretty, but not suitable for an interview."

Nora sighed as she stepped out of the dressing room in her normal clothes. "We've been here for over an hour. I don't think we're going to find anything."

"There's got to be something here." Ren said. He saw a mannequin wearing a black skirt paired with a white and black blouse. "Hmm... I've got an idea. Wait here."

The young ninja sped off and grabbed few things for Nora to try on. Roughly ten minutes later, he stood up waiting for Nora to show her outfit to him. When she stepped out, she was wearing a knee-length navy blue skirt with a matching coat and a white blouse.

"Well, I like it. It's nice, it's comfortable, formal yet not horribly dark in color. What do you think?"

Ren smiled. "It's perfect. It might be slightly more expensive because it's multiple parts, but if it helps you to get a decent paying job, it's worth it. Now then, get back into your normal attire so we can make our purchase and get out of here."

The happy go lucky lass followed his instruction and the two started walking through the store, making their way to the counter. As they passed by other sections of clothes, the ninja turned to his internal thoughts. _Damn, why does she look so cute in that? Then again, she's always cute. Wait. Cute?_

* * *

Back at the Arc family home, Jaune took a nail, a hammer and a piece of paper and started hammered a message into the wall over by the entrance to the kitchen and dining room.

"Could you keep it down?" Rouge asked, annoyed with the racket.

"Sorry. Just posting an important notice." he answered.

"Huh?"

The other sisters began to notice and even his parents too. "What's this?" Emerald inquired.

Acacia squinted at the text, being further away from everyone else. "It reads,

 _'To Whom It May Concern; I, Jaune Arc, will soon be taking combat lessons from my older sister, Tangerine Arc. These lessons will be occurring on a daily basis from 9:30pm-10:30pm. Please note that this time may vary depending on when Tangerine returns from her work of hunting down criminals for cash. I kindly ask of you not to call me for any sort of butler related activities or disturb me during the training sessions that are to come. Your patience and understanding are most appreciated.  
_

 _Signed Jaune Arc'_

Below that, in Tangerine's hand-writing, reads,

 _'Tangerine Arc_

 _Yes, Jaune is actually doing this.'_ "

"He can't even do this!" Rouge exclaimed, before turning to her parents. "Can he?"

"As long as he gets done with all his chores beforehand, I don't see what the problem is."

Rouge sighed. She turned away from her family and rolled her eyes. Jaune grabbed the mop and proceeded to mop the kitchen floor.

* * *

Pyrrha roamed the forest, still cloaked. It had been only a single day since her fateful encounter with the tarot reader Maura Celandine. She knew where she wanted to go, but unfortunately, she was really lost. During an encounter with Beowolves the previous night, one of them ate her compass, so now she had no idea where she was, where the city was, or how to get there.

 _Alright... The nearest city is... How many miles away?  
_

By now, she was very much far from the city of Mistral, and away from most other major cities for that matter. Since her destination was the southwestern part of Vale, she would either have to get to Olympia by plane or by boat. But the latter would take a lot longer. Considering that most major cities with airports were pretty far away, her best option was to get to the nearest coastal city. Where in the world was she?

She pushed a few branches out of the way and walked forward to a small cliff, containing a freshwater marsh below. Sometimes there was civilization nearby a swamp or marsh, but this was not always the case. Deciding to change course in these hopes, she jumped into the ankle-deep water, letting it soak her feet and the lower part of her cloak. She took a few steps, one after the other, and after walking about 50 feet or so into the marsh, she felt something bite at her ankle.

"Ow! What the?" She lifted her leg up and saw she was being bitten by snapping turtles. "Ow, get off!" She knocked the turtle off her with her fist, only for the turtle to come back with another turtle. As the two turtles tried to bite away at her, she then realized her red sash was being bitten by them. "No, stop it!" She got out her spear, Milo Javelin, and used it to knock the first snapping turtle away from her. She then had to pry the second one off her sash, ending up bitten in the hand twice before using her spear to knock it away. Wanting to avoid more snapping turtles, she then ran through the marsh for a few hundred meters and got out of it, jumping off onto the cliff, sitting down to catch her breath while thoroughly examining the damage done to her sash. "Oh man! This is the last thing I have left of my mom!" She felt like a burst of cold air ripped through her lungs and sniffed, trying to hold back tears. "Mother..."

Her memories brought her back to the day she left for Beacon Academy. This would be the last day she would ever her parents in person for the last time. The three of them, stood on the front porch of their house. Ash Nikos was not present, since he said his goodbye to her earlier before going out with his friends. Pyrrha had her big red luggage case behind her, wearing her traditional combat outfit.

Her mother, Phoenix Nikos, was a tall woman with the same bright red hair Pyrrha had and slightly lighter green eyes. Her hair was thrown into a large top bun with slight curled bangs on both sides of her face. She wore a white peplos with a golden phoenix pin on the right shoulder strap paired with gold open toed sandals.

Her father, Merle Nikos, had the same emerald eyes Pyrrha did, but had black hair, greased back and neatly combed. He wore black pants held by red suspenders with a dark grey button up dress shirt and an orange neck tie with red stripes in a spiral-lined pattern paired with black dress shoes.

"Well, I suppose it's time. To start walking the road that leads to my destiny." Pyrrha said. She smiled and sniffed. "I'm going to miss you."

"Wait." Her mother reached out. "I made you this." She handed the red sash to her. "Red is the color of energy, strength, determination and power. Remember this is every battle you fight. Keep it on your person, so that you know, that no matter what happens, we are always with you."

She attached the sash to her belt. "Thank you." She threw her arms around her mom. "I love you, mom."

"I love you too, sweetie. Good luck at Beacon!"

Her father gave her a big bear hug, which she returned with equal strength. "Love ya, dad."

"Love you too, little champion." He released her from the hug. "Now get out there and show em what you're made of!"

She smiled as she took her suitcase and left her home. She then stopped and looked at her parents one last time before leaving. "Tell Ash that I love him and wish him good luck when he goes back to Sanctum!"

"Will do. Goodbye!"

"Goodbye!"

And so she walked forth, believing in herself and her destiny. As she returned to the present, she felt the tears slip from her eyes and fall down her face. They were gone now... her parents were dead and Ash... oh gods, where was he?

* * *

Later that evening, the first combat lesson had begun. It was 9:30 as Jaune requested, and he and Tangerine were in the backyard. The backyard was surrounded by a wooden fence and had three big trees at the perimeter. The lamp lights on the outside of the house served as a source of illumination on the dark night. Trying to keep himself still, Jaune sat on a chair he took from the kitchen with a clipboard and some pencils on his lap as Tangerine stood in front of a chalkboard, her back turned as she wrote something down with a piece of white chalk.

The board read in the middle in big bold chalk, _Combat 101-The Basics and Advanced Aspects of Combat_ and at the bottom it read in smaller, lighter font, _Tangerine Arc_.

His older sister turned to face him, chalk in her right hand. "Alright, Jaune, welcome to Combat 101. Your instructor is me, Tangerine Arc. Considering the very informal setting of these nightly sessions, you do not have to address me as Ms. or Professor, or any other teacher related title, but you can if you so desire to. These sessions will consist of a half lecture, half actual combat practice. We will also be working with aura and other exercises as I see fit. I see you have taken the liberty of getting supplies to take notes. Very good, those notes will help you during this course and throughout your career as a huntsman. So then, let's begin. Lesson number one-" Jaune began writing. "As a lone huntsman, you must be able to stand and fight on your own. I can not stress this enough. You have no teammates to aid you, no one to hide behind, no teachers or fellow hunters to save you. You are on your own. Answer this honestly; during your time at Beacon, you relied on your teammates to do some of the work for you, didn't you?"

He held the tip of the eraser of his pencil to his chin. "Well, yeah, I suppose... to an extent."

"To an extent... Hmm?" She looked at him curiously. "How much would you say you relied on your teammates to do the heavier, more difficult aspects of fighting on a five point scale? Five being absolutely helpless without them and one being you hardly relied on them at all."

"Ah... it depends on which point of the year you're asking about, but... I'd say a three overall."

Tangerine nodded. "Alright then. Well you're on your own now, so you must step up. Stand up." He did so, putting the notes and clipboard down. "Get out Crocea Mors." He followed her instruction without hesitation. "Show me your best combat ready stance!" Jaune put his right foot forward, his sword in hand, holding his shield up with his left arm as he had his legs apart, his body slightly towards the ground. "Good. Now then." She got out her spear, seemingly out of nowhere. "Now then, prepare to face me in combat!"

"Wait, what?!"

Before he could even blink, she charged towards him and knocked him down by batting him with her fire-dust loaded spear, partially singeing his clothes, leaving him in pain and confusion. His sword and shield fell behind him by the fence as Tangerine stared at him down below. "Lesson number two- always be prepared for anything and everything. Be ready to expect the unexpected. Don't worry, I'm not going to suddenly charge at you. Probably." That stated sounded less than reassuring to Jaune, but he said nothing of it as he got up from the ground. "Were you told this one in your school days?"

He retrieved the sword and shield, answering as he stuttered, "I... I think so, although I've never really followed it much. Mainly because it's really hard to do..."

"Well, you're going to have to. And I know it's easier said than done, but the reaction of the unforeseen occurrence and the possible hesitation could cost you. Now then, shall we move on?"

After the lecture part of the lesson was over, they moved on to the actual combat training.

"The rules of these duels are simple; defeat your opponent. I will be throwing all different kinds of fighting styles at you so that you will be prepared for anything that comes your way. Like this course, these duels will get harder as time goes on. Since we are just starting out, I'll use one of the weapons I don't normally use." She got out her nunchucks. "I won't hold back. Not much anyway." She tightened her grip swung her wrists in a clockwise motion, spinning the weapons as Jaune braced himself for combat once again.

Without warning, she charged at him. He tried to rise his shield to block her attacks, to no avail. After being struck in the chest with the nunchucks in her right hand, he felt winded and then the next thing he knew, she knocked his shield right out of his hand, leaving him with only his sword. He tried to use his sword to prevent the nunchucks from getting him in head or face, and when the right one roped around his sword, he used his raw muscle strength to yank it away from her.

Instead of looking annoyed like he thought she would be, she smirked. "Clever." Tangerine remarked. "But not quite clever enough!" As she spun her remaining nunchuck, she switched it from one hand to another as she continued fighting. She end up getting him in the stomach, briefly stunning him as she cartwheeled back and retrieved the other part of her weapon. "You fail to see how your weaknesses are dragging you down! You could be faster! Use more aura when fighting! You told me that Pyrrha told you had a lot of aura! Why aren't you using it?!"

Jaune didn't have time to think about that or answer her question. She spun her nunchucks faster than ever, scaring him. He sidestepped, trying to avoid her attacks and think of a strategy on how to, but he had nothing. The match then ended with Jaune's head hurting after being knocked down with the nunchucks. He felt dizzy, almost like falling unconscious on the ground. Forcing himself to get up, he threw his arms forward, using his hands to mount himself upward, his head spinning as he tried to get up. He moaned and rubbed his head in pain as Tangerine sighed.

"Ohhh..."

"Looks like we got a long way to go. Now then, time for a new experience." She set her nunchucks down on the collapsible table, where she placed her other weapons, trading the weapon she previously used for one used by someone the young blond used to know. "You told me that you knew Yang Xiao-Long, one of the many pen-pals I have. Well tell me this, did you ever face her in combat?" She cocked her basketball orange dual ranged shot gauntlets.

"Can't say that I have." he slowly answered.

"Well then, first time for everything I guess."

She smirked as she charged towards him. Pretty soon, the combat part of the lecture was over.

"Now then, since we still have a little bit of time left, I'll give you the instruction to dodging. Do be aware that there is a difference between retreating from battle, taking cover and doing an evasive maneuver. Retreating from battle is where you are completely abandoning the battle or getting off the battlefield. You don't want to be doing this, as running away from battle generally means that you're a cowardly weakling. There are some instances, however, where this would be the better option. For instance, if your arm breaks and there's massive gunfire, you want to get out of there immediately. Now taking cover, that's trying to get away from the source of conflict without leaving the battle. That's what you were doing to avoid the sniper's gunfire in your match against team BRNZ in the Vytal Festival. Dodging, or evasive maneuvering, is exactly what it sounds like-avoiding enemy projectiles and attacks by deflecting them or getting out of the way."

"Now, for your first dodging exercise... Hmm..." She went over to her table and grabbed a wooden staff. "You have any objections to Randori?"

Without even a moment to answer her, she swung the staff at him, hitting him in the head, both of his kneecaps and his back. He groaned as she got up, swiftly doing a backflip to evade her advances.

 _No one ever said this would be easy..._

Several minutes later, Jaune was lying on the ground.

"Oof. That was rough."

"You managed to evade for at least a minute though. That's a good sign. The first step isn't always easy, but you have taken it." Jaune arose as she put the staff and her other weapons away. "Take what you have learning here tonight and apply it in combat."

"Hey um, Tangerine? Thanks again for agreeing to do this."

She smiled. "No problem. But don't think that this is going to get any easier."

Jaune nodded in comprehension as he took his materials and went back inside. He set the clipboard and pencils on the dining room table and sat down at the dining room table as he tried to regain his strength.

"Oh, Jaune!" a familiar voice called out.

"Oh boy..."

 _What does Rouge want with me this time?_

"Come with me." She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him up the stairs, turning to the left and going to the first door on the right. With her other hand, she opened the door and took him into her room, showing him several bottles of nail polish on her desk underneath the bookshelf on top of it. "You are to sort these out by color and place them on the top rack of the bookshelf, left to right from lightest to darkest."

"Sorting nail polish?" He gave her a raised eyebrow and annoyed look. "That's what you want me to do as butler? Seems like such a minimal task."

"You don't have a choice." She held the back of her hand to her forehead. "Also, today has been exhausting for me."

He shot a death glare at her. "You could have done this yourself hours ago during your spare time."

"Zip it. Oh, and when you're done with that, make me a cup of rose passionfruit tea." She grabbed a book from the bookshelf and turned to face the door. "I'll be waiting downstairs."

The fashion model left the former student of Beacon to complete his task. Jaune sighed as he looked at the bottles of nail polish. There were over a hundred of them, a majority being in some shade of red. A few were in pink, a smaller few in white, two in gold and silver glitter, other glitter colors, and one in orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. He was going to be here a while.


	25. Comatose

Meanwhile, Blake was still in Fiti. She had been searching the entire city for a member of the White Fang, but she was getting nowhere. She had searched the entire city for a trace or clue to the whereabouts of the activist turned terrorist group and/or anyone who might know where the bull horned faunus she once trusted. Alas, all of her efforts appeared to be for naught as she slumped her back against the wall of the last police station she had been to.

 _The White Fang have completely vanished from this city. Now what?_ _I'm right at square one._ _At least when I began, I had some idea of who to search for or where to go, but all of my leads have brought me to a dead end._

She looked up at the night sky with all its stars and the shattered moon. Even in the city of Fiti, she was able to see it all. It seemed that there was a light visible, even if no one else could see it. As she stared at the sky, her eyes darted from the city lights for a brief moment.

 _Looks like there's no point in staying here. It's time to move on._ Blake thought to herself. _No matter how hard it may be.  
_

Turning her head down, she sighed and started moving forth.

* * *

Sun was searching desperately for Blake, asking everyone who passed by him where the girl of his dreams was.

"Have you seen this girl?"

"She was walking in that direction." the guy answered, pointing to his right. "I heard her mumbling something about moving on. She's probably leaving the city."

"Oh man..."

He quickly ran off, hoping to find Blake before she left the city. He got past the city limits and soon entered the forest, trying desperately to find her. He had no idea where he was, or where he was going, but that didn't even matter.

 _How did I get into this situation? Oh wait, I already know the answer to that. I found her and I fell in love with her..._

He remembered the day he meet Blake. Several months ago, months before the Vytal Festival, he had been stowing away on a boat, sitting on the metal ledge of the upper deck as the boat pulled into the docks. Unfortunately, one of the sailors noticed him.

"What are you doing here?" He didn't answer. Instead he stood upstarted dashing away. "Hey, stop that Faunus!"

"Thanks for the ride, guys! Haha!"

As he jumped off and hit the dock running, one of the sailors called, "You no-good stowaway!"

He hung from a lamppost, peeling back a banana. "Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!"

A rock was thrown at him. "Hey! Get down from there this instant!" the second detective commanded.

Sun dropped the banana peel on the detective's face, who growled in return. The monkey-like Faunus twirled up to crouch on the lamppost, laughed mischievously, and leapt off, running away from the detectives. He ran past Team RWBY, winking at an astonished Blake as if time slowed down before continuing to be chased by the officers. After several minutes of running, trying to get away from team RWBY (and the authorities), he sat up on the rooftop, trying to catch his breath.

 _Damn, that was close. Looks like I still got it._ He chuckled to himself aloud before turning back to his internal thoughts. _That raven-haired girl that saw me... She looks so beautiful. Her raven hair, her amber eyes, her cute little black bow. Although... I can't help but think that there's a hidden reason why she's wearing that bow. I'd like to get to know her , but what would she want to do with a stranger like me?_

"Stop it!"

His train of thoughts was derailed upon hearing two ladies arguing.

"Stop what?" another voice asked. "He clearly broke the law. Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang!"

He looked down below as a white-clad woman and the black bowed beauty got into a huge argument. He had no idea who they were talking about at the time, but in hindsight, he would eventually realize that they were mentioning him. Blake clinched her fist and growled. "You ignorant little brat!"

"How dare you talk to me like that!" Weiss approached her angrily. "I am your teammate!"

"You are a judgmental little girl."

"What in the world makes you say that?!"

She put her hands to her hips as Sun witnessed the argument escalating. The other two teammates just stood there awkwardly as the argument progressed. "The mere fact that you would sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group solely based on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be!"

"So you admit it!" Weiss folded her arms. "The White Fang is just a radical group of terrorists!"

Blake glared at her. "That's not what I meant, and you know it!"

If looks could kill, Weiss would have been dead. Or if nothing else, she would have had a lot of holes in her face. As they continued bickering, Sun turned back to his internal thoughts.

 _She's defending me even though I'm a stranger. Then again she's defending all Faunus, even the White Fang, to a smaller extent. Now I'm just too curious; Who is she? Why is she defending Faunus so much if she appears to be human? Something tells me she's hiding something with that bow. But what?_

As the argument continued over multiple hours, he found himself outside in Beacon's courtyard. He hung himself from the lamppost with his tail, waiting for the right moment to introduce himself to the black-bowed girl and say something. Or perhaps she would find him. But even then, would the girl really run away from her team like he thought she would? He had no idea. He did find out however, that the girl and her team were from Beacon Academy. As he was left hanging, he saw upside down that one of the windows was open. Before he knew it, he then saw Blake running through the courtyard to the statue. He turned himself right-side up and forced himself til he was standing on top of the lamppost.

 _Oh man, she looks troubled. Should I...? Wait... what is she doing?_

She closed her eyes and slowly lifted her arms up to her bow and pulled the string to release the bow from her hair, revealing her Faunus cat ears to what she believed was empty air. She had nothing more to loose.

 _I knew it. Aw, those cat ears are so cute! But what should I say?_

Seeing that she was on the verge of crying, he complimented, "I knew you would look better without the bow."

She looked up and saw him on the lamppost, smiling for a brief moment. She responded, "Oh, um, thanks?"

"You're welcome." He sat down on the metal railing of the lamppost, trying to make eye contact. "Your ice queen teammate isn't very nice, is she?"

"No, she isn't. She has her reasons for disliking Faunus, but..." She sighed. "she is being overly harsh."

He jumped down. "Guess your secret's out, isn't it?"

"My teammates know, but no one else does. And they never even saw my cat ears..." She turned away sadly, before facing him, this time with curiosity and wonder. "You're not big on hiding your true self, are you?"

"Nah, not really. Besides, my tail here," his tail twitched in demonstration, "often has a mind of its own." He folded his arms, leaned against the lamppost and asked her, "So what are you doing to do now?"

"I don't know. I can't go back there... And..." She looked at him annoyed. "Hold on a second. Why would I tell you what my next move is? You're just a stranger."

"Well, that can easily be fixed. I'm Sun Wukong."

"Blake Belladonna."

As he returned to the present, he realized he was getting nowhere. He had lost track of where she was. As he sat down on a rock, trying to catch his breath, he hardly heard the sound of the soft wind rushing by him, or the crickets in the moonless night. The monkey king slammed his fist on the rock, using what little aura he had to prevent his bones from breaking. "Damn it. I'm just lost."

 _Oh wait, I lost track of her hours ago..._ Sun reminded himself. _I just didn't realize it. This feeling... it's... it's like I'm in a coma. Or have I been in this coma from the very moment she left? When she rejected me on the rooftops?_

He had been using his aura to run through the terrain quicker, in the hopes of finding Blake. So far, he wasn't any closer to finding her. As he got up from the rock, he continued walking in no particular direction, choosing to rely on his instincts. An hour had passed, and as time went on, his thoughts began to torment him even more.

 _Blake... How could you? How could you just leave me without telling me how you feel? How could you have tricked me, deceived me, leading me on?_ He then internally yelled at himself. _Don't think like that! You love her!  
_

 _What of your love for her? She doesn't even want you._ a voice in his head told him. _She wants nothing to do with you. She hates you!_

He sighed. This argument came up in his mind several times throughout his journey, if only his brain would stop arguing with his heart. Inconsiderate brain.

* * *

Yang sat down on her desk, her left arm shaking as she held the pencil in her hand. She had been trying to write a letter to her friend, but so far, her attempts to use her remaining arm for writing, or anything else for that matter, had gone the opposite of well. She slammed her fist down in frustration and looked at the letter she was sent.

 _Dear Yang,_

 _Hey, I know it's kinda been a long time since we talked, you being busy with school and me being busy with hunting criminals, but I just wanted to check in, see how you're doing. Are you alright? I heard about what happened during the singles round in the Vytal Festival. I can't believe that so many people would blame you and call it an act of cold-blooded spite. If I didn't know you, I'd probably assume that's the case. But you're my friend, and I don't think you meant to hurt him after winning the match. Something's up, but what is it? I don't know, and I may never know. What's even more suspicious is the events of Beacon Academy crumbling to it's knees. Something tells me it wasn't just the White Fang. They would never just attack a huntsmen academy without reason. Whatever's going on underneath the surface... it can't be good._

 _On another note, things are going fine back at the fold. The debt is decreasing- we'll be free of it one day, I'm sure. Rouge is still a pain in the ass at times, but over the years the amount of arguing and fights has gone way down. Nothing's changed with Acacia, Azura or Amethyst much, but Indigo's become more of a prankster. Also, Emerald has unlocked her semblance. You might find it a bit hard to believe, but she has the semblance of emotion suppression. She is able to lock up her emotions by using 25% of her aura, making her completely emotionless, much like a robot. She can unlock her emotions without the cost of aura. Yeah, it's strange. To me, it feels like that semblance is unreal, yet Emerald is living proof that it is. It's kinda crazy.  
_

 _Anyway, I hope that you're alive and well and that this letter reaches you safely. If you got this letter, and you're able to write and hire a good messenger, I'd like to hear from you. Please respond back as soon as you can. I'm worried about you.  
_

 _Sincerely yours, Tangerine_

Yang felt a tear drop down her face as she reread the letter for what felt like the hundredth time.

* * *

Days passed by, Sun was getting slightly tired by the minute. His eyes drooped, but he didn't want to give up. He refused to call it quits. He didn't wanna sleep, didn't want to dream. None of his dreams comforted him. In fact, many of his dreams were nightmares. As he continued on his quest to find Blake and aid her, his days became shorter, and his nights became longer.

 _Should I just give up?_

Before he knew it, his vision started to blur slightly. The adrenaline rushing through his systems wore off and crashed a while ago. As much as didn't want to, he leaned his back against the tree and collapsed on the ground, falling asleep instantly.

His dreams were not treating him better. If anything, they had gotten worse. He found himself surrounded by darkness. He thought he saw Blake's shadow.

"Do you really even think she'll want anything to do with you?" the distant voice of Corvina Noire asked.

Suddenly a huge expanding beam of white light engulfed the area, Blake's shadow looking at him sadly as it was drowned in the light and the scene switched. Sun now stood in Beacon Academy as it was falling apart. He stood in what was the cafeteria as the fight raged on around him. The school was crumbling to pieces. Blake's shadow stood before him with her hands down. He then noticed that he wasn't really in a physical form, but instead, glowing with golden energy, as though he took the form of his specter clone. He stood there, trying not to cry as he looked upon the girl he loved so much. He wanted to hold her in his arm, gently caress her, tell her everything would be alright.

Black tears with a white outline could be seen as Blake's shadow briefly wept. "Sun..."

He slowly approached her. "Blake..."

"Don't come for me..." She removed the bow, the shadow of it flying loose in the wind, before she tied it to her wrist. "I won't be able to save you..." She gestured to what was Yang's right arm and the other piece of Ember Celica. "I couldn't save her..."

He gasped. He had already seen Yang after she lost most of her right arm, but seeing the remains suddenly made him want to cry and throw up at the same time. He gagged and forced himself place his hand over his mouth to stop himself from vomiting. As the feeling of nausea died down, he turned back to Blake, her eyes closed as the ribbon danced in the wind.

"Who did this?! Where is he?!"

"Sun..." She sadly looked at the solar-energy version of him. "I can't tell you this. You'll get hurt if you continue this pursuit. And besides... whatever feelings you may still have for me..." She turned away from him. "Some things aren't meant to be."

He put his hands to his chest defensively. "This isn't about my desires! I want to help you, I want to be there for you! Blake, please..."

"I'm sorry, Sun. But I can't..."

He softly grasped her wrist. Surprisingly, her shadow didn't dissolve into nothing as he gently held her and she turned to face him in shock. "Blake... You mean everything to me."

"Sun..." She spoke, trying to figure out what to say.

"Do you really think you can run forever, my darling?" The same shadow that came to his dreams appeared a few feet before them. He had no idea who Adam Taurus was, but still he came to haunt him. The shadow of the cat faunus didn't answer his question as she stepped away from the solar-energy form of the man she cared for so much.

She got out her weapon and held back even more tears. "Leave him alone!" The shadow of Blake pleaded. "I'm the one you want!"

"You think you're so brave, so noble, trying to atone for your mistakes? Well, you're not!" He got out his weapon. "The biggest mistake you made was betraying me and the White Fang!"

"Blake, no!" Sun tried to reach out for her, but suddenly he was bound in black chains. On his knees with his arms behind his back, the enchained monkey faunus was powerless to stop Blake as she ran towards the evil shadow and he charged towards her. "Blake!"

He woke up, gasping for breath. He opened his eyes in horror as the cold night air filled his lungs. Wearily, he looked at his watch. 4:30 in the morning. He slammed his fist to the ground. There was no rest for the weary faunus.

* * *

Blake had reached a small village. She hid in an alleyway as she listened to a conservation between two faunus, a young male teen with dark brown dog ears and a slightly older female teen with light brown cat ears.

"Do you really think this a good idea?"

"Come on, sister. What do we have to lose?"

She scoffed at him. "What do we have to lose? This is the White Fang we're talking about!"

"Not so loud. Someone could hear us!" he warned.

"Who would be paying attention to us?"

He shrugged it off. "In approximately seven days, the White Fang will be meeting in Kana. If we hurry, we can make it to the next meeting, and hopefully, by joining them, we'll make our lives better, and make things better for all faunus."

"I don't know. The White Fang not only has a bigger target on their back with the Fall of Beacon, Mistral's branch is at war with itself and crumbling to pieces."

"I didn't believe that those events occurred. It seems too outlandish to be true."

The older sister folded her arms. "You ignorant little brat! Are you really trying to deny that Maura is currently on the run from several huntsmen, huntresses and authorities as we speak?!"

The catwoman turned the other way as the squabbling siblings left, and leaned her back against the wall with her hands behind her, as if she was lying down on the grass. "Kana, huh? Good to know. At least now I have an idea of where I'm going. Now it's just a matter of getting there."


	26. Am I Wrong?

"Ahhhhhhhh! Doh!"

A thud was heard as Jaune laid upside down against the tree. This wasn't the first time this had happened. Tangerine held her sword in her right hand, blade pointing towards upwards (although it seemed down due to the position he was in) as she walked towards him. "It's a good thing your bones aren't brittle. Otherwise, you would have broken several of them by now. This is third time you've ended up against a wall upside down. Or in this case, a tree. Are you sure you want to continue?"

He groaned as he gave his response. "Ugh... Don't remind me. And to answer your question, yes."

His legs lurched forward, flipping him backwards until he was sitting on his butt, his head disorientated from being flipped upside down. He held his hand to his head, trying to stop it from spinning. Tangerine looked at him, slightly annoyed. "Come on, boy, you got 30 more minutes to go."

He got his weapon from the ground once more, breathed to calm his nerves, and shouted his battle cry as he charged towards her again. Another night, he was shown fighting against her with a two handed sword.

"Is that all you got?"

Another night, Jaune fought against her again, this time she was wielding a battle axe.

"Come on!"

Another night, he was facing her as she wielded her signature spear.

"Is that all you got?"

Jaune smirked. "Bring it on!"

A wave of fire from her spear came at him. The next night, she was using her other signature weapon.

"Come on, Jaune! Are you holding back?!" Tangerine taunted as she cracked her whip.

With the whip in her hands, Jaune was having a hard time trying to find an opening. One move and she could easily take his sword. As he dashed backwards, he tried to think of a plan to get behind her and pin her down, but she did just what he predicted she would do-steal his sword, force him to shield for a while, dash forward to the strike and then kick him down from behind. After she did these actions, Jaune groaned as he laid on his side.

"I knew what you were trying to do."

"So you saw through my plan? That's good. Being able to predict your enemy's intentions is a sign that you're thinking ahead. Stopping them from fulfilling their intent is another matter however. And do be forewarned, not every enemy will be easy to predict. Let's try that again." Jaune retrieved his gear, inhaled to reassure himself and charged towards her again, slashing his sword through the air quicker as he tried to attack her. "Better." Another quick slash. "Watch your form. Put more elbow into it!"

Soon enough, the combat session, and the lesson, ended and Jaune had been sitting in the kitchen wiping sweat off his forehead with a glass of water in the other hand. The shadow of a familiar hourglass figure lurked in the doorway, causing the exhausted student to turn his head in the direction of the shadow and he groaned when he saw who the shadow belonged to.

The eldest Arc sister looked at him curiously. "Is there a reason you're still continuing this?"

He set the glass on the table angrily, almost breaking it. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're not getting anywhere fast. You should just give up." Rouge said to him. "You'll never get anywhere in life with these combat lessons. Heck, I'm surprised that Tangerine agreed to this. Oh and by the way, since you're here, make me a cup of lavender tea." He sighed softly. "Hey now, don't complain."

The young blond turned away and clinched his teeth. "I'm not."

Rouge snickered under her breath, but Jaune heard it too. He carried out her command, poured her cup of tea and then sped off to his room, his glass of water in hand. He set the glass on his nightstand and collapsed face-first onto his bed, some sweat soaking into his sheets as he slammed his fist against the mattress.

 _Am I wrong for thinking out the box from where I stay? For_ _choosing another way? For_ _for trying to reach what I can't see?_ Jaune thought to himself.

Although tired, he got up from the mattress and went for the showers, thinking about how far he had come.

* * *

Five days had passed since Blake heard about the White Fang meeting in Kana. She had reached the city on the opposite side of Patch as the night. Normally she would have taken off the bow and tried to disguise herself as a new recruit, but she had already used that trick for the White Fang meeting in Vale. She couldn't turn out the lights to get away like she did last time either. She needed a new plan if she wanted to get information on where Adam Taurus.

She stood on the rooftop, looking at the city of Kana down below her. It was similar to Fiti, but it wasn't a coastal city, so there were no beaches and there was more space in between buildings and apartment complexes. She turned her head directly down below her, looking at the white warehouse with big grey stripes on its side, and, if she squinted, the mark of the White Fang nearby the entrance. As she stood there, Blake breathed in, gathering her thoughts on how to proceed.

 _My old friend would be able to do this easily._ She internally sighed. _If only I had the ability to blend in with my surroundings... Hmm... Maybe I don't need to camouflage. Maybe I just need to hide. Hide where they can't see me, and wait for the right moment to strike.  
_

Hide and wait for the right moment to strike, or take action. This wasn't the first time she did that. Wanting to scope out the lay of land and plan out her strategy appropriately, she jumped down, landing on her feet without fail and entered the warehouse. As she slowly walked forward, she saw that the first area looked like a lounge, complete with two sofas parallel to each other, a wooden rectangle table in between and a white carpet underneath it and that same setup on both sides of the room in the upper. The white walls were bare, although judging by the wall marks, it looked like there were once pictures hanging on the walls.

About 25 feet in front her, the walls closed in form a thinner hallway with less room, with wooden doors on both sides in the hallway. She went down that said hallway and saw a more open area with a dark grey canopy hiding the white wall and a wooden stage had already been built about 50 feet in front of her. To her right and left, she saw vertical white marble columns, one in each corner of the room. She looked up and saw a bunch of metal rails with spotlights above her, in between the wooden moulding and the ceiling. She smirked as her plan came together. In two days, her plan would be unfurled.

 _Perfect. If all goes well, Adam's days will soon be numbered._

* * *

In the meantime, Jaune was doing a lot of chores, butler related tasks, and combat practice.

 _Rouge, you are horrible. You're the wor..._

"Alright, Jaune." As his mind returned to the present, Tangerine stood over by the weapons table. "Once again, we will be working on dodging exercises. This time, you will be dodging arrows."

"Wait? Arrows?! Isn't that kinda dangerous?"

"No, silly. These are plunger arrows." she said as she got them out along with her bow. "This is what I first used for target practice when I began archery about a year ago. Also, if you have the dodging reflexes of a deer, I would rather not have you impaled in a vital organ. If you can dodge these, you should be able to dodge the real deal. Do be forewarned, you'll be going through multiple waves of arrow dodging."

"Alright then."

"Your objective is simple; evade the arrows. Your time begins now."

The dodging exercise began as Tangerine slowly drew back the string, putting an arrow onto it before releasing it and letting it fire at Jaune. The speed gradually sped up after each string release of the arrow. Soon she was firing arrows, one rapidly after the other. With quick reflexes and moves, he dodged them all.

"Was that it? That wasn't nearly as hard as you said it would be."

The street fighter chuckled. She then started to fire two arrows at a time at the same. Jaune widened his eyes in realization as one plunger arrow got him in the lower part of his stomach. As the speed increased and the double arrow round ended, a plunger arrow landed right in the center of his forehead.

"If that was the real thing, you would be dead!"

The arrow dodging rounds progressed to be harder and harder. As another one got him in the neck, she screamed, "You'd be dead!" She said, "You'd be dead!" again as the plunger arrow got him in the heart.

As time went on, he was trying to dodge the arrows as they were flung at him at rapid speeds, trying to dodge three, four or even five at a time. He got several of them stuck on him in various places, including his arm (mainly the right), one on his thigh, multiple in various parts of his torso, and even some on his rear end. One got him in hard part of his skull on his right side, one got him in the back of his head, and another one got him where his liver would be if it was on the outside.

"Dead! Dead! Dead!"

He moaned and fell to the ground. "Oh... god... That was rough."

"Man, you need to work on your dodging arrow skills. If that was the real deal, you would be dead several times over. No wait, you would have been dead a long time ago!"

He sighed and got up. "Can you help get the arrows from my backside?"

She sighed, "Sure."

The teacher started removing arrows on his back and then proceeded to remove the arrows from his behind. "Well, well, looks like training isn't going very well, is it?"

The fashion model leaned against the glass door, her arm bent to place her hand near her side bun. Jaune turned his head away, his face burning from further humiliation. Tangerine gave her an annoyed look as he pulled the last arrow from Jaune's butt. "Rouge, what did I tell you about trying to take Jaune away for butler tasks during training?"

"I wasn't going to assign him to any butler related tasks, but... I am curious, why are you continuing to fight?" Tangerine was about to speak, but Rouge held up a finger. "I'm not talking about you Tangerine, I know you have a reason to continue fighting, it's part of your job. Even if it is just hunting down lowly criminals and turning them in for cash." She turned to her younger brother as he removed the last arrow from his elbow. "But you, Jaune? Beacon has fallen to its knees, you're not attending another huntsman academy, you're nothing. You have no reason to continue fighting. So give it up."

He felt anger boiling underneath the surface slowly rising up. It didn't help that she laughed at him as she left him to muse over her words. And then, he snapped. "Aurgh!" He punched the nearest tree, tearing a hole right through it. There was a brief glow around his right arm as did this, the wooden core and bark flying over the yard. The white glow disappeared, but he was still seething with rage. He panted as his eyes maintained that fierce, fiery look. "Damn Rouge... Damn her..."

Tangerine stood there all wide-eyed screaming, "Holy crap! How did you do that?!"

He snapped out of his rage and then found himself caught in a state of bewilderment. "I... I don't know... All I felt was... pure rage."

She examined the damage done. "I've punched trees before in anger, making a dent out of them in the bark, but you just tore right through it like it was nothing! How?!"

Jaune shrugged. "I... I... I got nothin'."

"Hmm... We will have to ponder this mystery later. Now then, back to our lesson."

* * *

"What do you mean you lost it?"

Dr. Watts was standing before a displeased Salem, showing her annoyance and anger by folding her arms and glaring at him. "I know you're angry. And you have every right in the world to be angry with me." He slowly dropped to his knees and bowed before her. "I have failed you, your grace. I made a promise to you and I failed to keep it. I apologize for not being able to keep my word."

She sighed loudly. "This is a setback. One day, we will find the other three. It's just going to be harder without the tracking device you made."

He looked up in curiously. "The other three? Last I looked there were four and a half if you count Cinder being able to steal half of Amber's power."

"So it seems no one has informed you of Cinder's progress. Cinder has completely assumed the mantle of Fall Maiden."

Watts slightly smiled. "I did not know this. This is excellent news."

"Unfortunately, she was knocked and extremely injured by a silver-eyed warrior."

His expression turned to a satisfied look. "That's not good. At least, not for us as a whole. And did you say a silver-eyed warrior? I thought all of them were dead or couldn't use their powers due to injury."

"Oh, they're not dead or disabled, Dr. Watts. Quite far from it. They're just hiding, keeping themselves secret. But there's one that can't hide themselves anymore..."

* * *

After the lesson ended, Jaune was about to head to the showers to soak away the sweat with cold water, a habit he had gotten into to help relax him after his harsh training sessions. He put his gear back in his room and was about to head for the shower when...

"Oh, Jaune!"

 _Oh boy..._ he thought.

Rouge approached him quickly. "Jaune, there you are. I need you to..."

"Rouge, I just got out of combat practice that started 20 minutes late." Jaune interrupted. "Just leave me alone, please."

The young warrior turned away, but he felt Rouge grab his left wrist. "Don't you remember the terms of your punishment? You have to do what I say."

He yawned and took his wrist back. "Rouge, I'm tired. I'm exhausted. Whatever task you want me to do can probably wait until morning. Also, shouldn't you be asleep by now?"

"You're right. I can't do a fashion show horribly sleep-deprived!"

The eldest Arc sibling swiftly left and Jaune sighed in relief, glad to have her off his back. Without hesitation, he went to the bathroom and shut the door. He quickly took off his clothes and turned on the water, letting the near-freezing water soak his sweaty skin. As the cold water cooled him down, his anger still simmered underneath him as he folded his arms and looked at the wall with a scowl.

 _Why does she treat me like this?_ Jaune thought as he was soaked in the cold water. _She treats me like dirt. Like shit. Like I'm nothing. She is the worst. Even worse than Cardin! And I have to live with this overconfident, vain bitch... Why won't she just leave the family fold?_ He raised his eyebrows when he remembered... _Oh yeah, right. She agreed to help finish paying off the massive debt before moving out. If it weren't for that, she would have left a long time ago. But until I'm released from this punishment, which will probably be never, or until the debt is paid and she moves out, I'm stuck here. Because I'm stuck here with this punishment, I can't get out and prove myself worthy. And since I can't prove myself worthy, I'm still stuck here suffering this punishment. Locked in a catch 22. This totally sucks. Rouge... You are the worst! For suggesting this punishment, for getting me into this punishment, for treating me like I'm a waste of space and oxygen..._ He let his arms down and clinched his fists, breathing to release the hot anger. But no matter what breathing exercise he did to calm down, he still felt rage inside. _Someday, you're going to get what you deserve.  
_

Meanwhile, the Arc sisters (minus Rouge), were gathered around in the living room. Azura, Acacia and Amethyst were all sitting on the couch, the purple haired girl holding a small handmade doll of herself. Tangerine sat down on the big red reclining chair while Indigo, being the slight rebel she was, sat on the edge of the table nearby Azura's legs. Normally, they would have told her to get off, but this time they didn't feel like it. Emerald stood next to Amethyst, smiling and holding a big book in her hands.

"So how's training going?" Azura inquired.

"It's going. He's improving, albeit slowly, but it's better than nothing at all." Tangerine answered as she cranked out the chairs footrest. "Unfortunately, I fear that his temper could get the better of him."

"And how so?" Emerald questioned.

The tough tomboy folded her arms. "Guess who interrupted our training session and told him he has no reason to continue fighting?"

"Rouge?" Acacia guessed. Her older sister nodded. "But weren't you super short-tempered for several years?"

"I know, but with Rouge's horrible treatment of Jaune and the fact she has practically enslaved him with him being butler, underneath that guilt-ridden, calm exterior is a pot of water slowly heating up and beginning to boil." She put her arms on the armrest. "If nothing changes, that pot of boiling water will eventually boil over."

"Somehow I doubt things are going to change." Indigo said, leaning back with her arms behind her. "Rouge has been treating him horribly even before he took Crocea Mors as his own, created fake transcripts for Beacon and attempting to hide his arguably immoral yet clever plan to become a huntsman." She sat up, pushing herself up with her arms. "But with these events, the Fall of Beacon, his return and punishment, Rouge is trying to get the most out of it and humiliate him as much as possible."

"If that's the case, I suppose the real question is 'When will he finally snap?'" Emerald noted.

Tangerine told the committee, "To me, it probably won't be too much longer."

"I give it a day." Indigo replied.

"No way! It'll be less than that! Probably twelve hours or less!" Amethyst answered.

"Three days." Acacia responded.

Azura added, "Depends on how much Jaune can take of Rouge's bad attitude. I think it could go either way."

"At least a week. It's going to take a lot for Jaune to snap, but when he does, it's going to escalate very quickly." Emerald remarked.

Amethyst looked at her worryingly. "You really think that'll happen?"

"Yeah, I do."

Acacia touched her chin with the tip of her right index finger. "So, if he's slowly building up anger, what's going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back?"

Emerald sighed. "That, my dear Acacia, is what I don't know."


	27. Forever Fall

Author's Notes:

-Man, this chapter is a longer one. But I think you'll enjoy it nonetheless.

* * *

Ren and Nora walked out of the business building complex in their interview outfits. As they went past the revolving door, they started to gently pace through the streets as they made their way back to the treehouse.

Nora skipped along for a few steps. "I can't believe we actually managed to get a job. And on our first try! Well, a paid internship, but close enough. Soon enough, we'll eventually get a real job."

Ren smiled amusingly. "What, did you think it would be super hard?"

"You're the one who told me that life isn't easy."

"Life as a whole is not easy. Finding a job is the easier part. Keeping it can be tricky. But I believe that this internship will work out quite well." Nora smiled briefly for a moment before she saw a little red-haired girl smiling as she carried a poster of Pyrrha Nikos. Upon seeing this, she turned away despondently. Ren noticed this and the two stopped before the crosswalk as the Valkyrie got lost in her thoughts. "Nora?"

She hung her head in sorrow. "I miss her... I miss both of them..."

He sulked slightly. "I know. I miss them too... but they're where they need to be."

"I suppose that's true. But... still... it feels like... we're in this wrong situation. Like... we should be doing something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know." She sighed. "Maybe I'm just crazy."

"You are, a little, but you're still my best friend. All we really have is each other."

"True." she said with a faint smile.

"As for Jaune and Pyrrha, I hope they're alright, wherever they are."

* * *

Jaune had woken up, yawning and stretching his arms as he sat up. He looked at the calendar hanging on his wall over by the door. The 15th of November. Emerald's birthday was November 25th. With the amendment to the rule of having a job, he wondered what his younger sister would do the day after she turns sixteen. She said she was still thinking about it, but she said that she would give her answer soon. It had been three weeks since Jaune arrived at the Arc family household. Three weeks had been forced into housekeeping and subservience (mainly by Rouge). He had learned to live with it, even if he didn't like it. He actually hated it.

He then looked at the clock on the other side of the same wall. 9:45am. Oh man, he overslept! He groaned as he got up and got dressed. By now, his mom and dad had left for their respective jobs. He dusted the living room and the entire downstairs and dumped Amethyst's laundry on her bed. As he went through the routine of chores, he couldn't help but look back on better days. The days when his biggest concern was trying to get good to pass off as a qualified huntsman trainee. The days when he had friends that helped him, supported him and believed in him. The days when he had Pyrrha Nikos by his side, even before he realized how he felt about her.

 _Pyrrha..._

He remembered the feeling of her lips upon hers, gently embracing her when he slept and cuddled with her the first time, even making love for a brief moment and as he recalled her, a certain memory came back to him. It was three days after Pyrrha had been found and safely returned. She was lying on the couch, cuddled underneath two blankets, with Jaune sitting next to her in a chair he pulled over from the dining room table. Ren and Nora were out running errands, so it was just the two of them in the apartment.

"You don't have to do this." Pyrrha said to him as he brought a glass of water to her.

"I know, but I'm worried about you." His voice began to break. "I...I almost lost you. It almost feels like... like..."

"Like this is all surreal? Like it's nothing but a dream?"

"Yeah..."

"It does feel that way, doesn't it?" He nodded in agreement. She looked at him sadly. "I know you won't like hearing this, but... it feels like I was supposed to meet my end at the top of the tower... but now... since I've survived..."

"Don't say that. I don't know if you're saying this because you accidentally killed Penny, which wasn't even your fault, or because that thrice-damned fall maiden defeated you, but you're alive, and you deserve to live on. That thrice-damned Cinder Fall... she's the one who deserves to die."

"But can we really decide who deserves death and who doesn't?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, you're here. And I'm glad you're here, with me."

"Yeah..." From under the covers, she took out her left arm and placed her hand with Jaune's. "I suppose I'm glad too."

Jaune smiled as he held her hand.

The young former Beacon student sulked as he returned to the present. He had to face reality. He'd never see her again. Nothing was ever going to change. Not for the better anyway. He got done with the daily indoor chores for the day. He stood in the kitchen, putting the mop back into the nearby closest then retrieved and put up a wet floor sign. After doing this, he pressed his back against the closet door.

"Well, it could be worse. Oh wait, this is rock bottom. It can't get worse."

"Still talking to yourself, are you?"

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, turned to Tangerine and smiled. "Sometimes I'm the only one who listens."

"I'll listen. Listening is part of communication after all."

Suddenly a few knocks were heard on the door. Jaune said, "I'll get it."

[cue RWBY Music-Forever Fall, at beginning, words of the song start when the door is opened]

He made his way over to the door, opened it and turned his head up in surprise as he saw the visitor. "Pyrrha?" The red-haired warrior stood at the doorstep, her crimson hood down as the autumn wind blew around her. An orange leaf landed on her head, getting stuck in her hair, but neither of them noticed. Neither one cared. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes and even when they came crashing down, she sobbed silently, not even saying a word. "Pyrrha?"

"Jaune..." She sobbed, throwing herself into his chest. "I've missed you..." She sobbed again. "Everything's... gone wrong... Can't afford to..."

He gently embraced her. "Pyrrha? Pyrrha, what's wrong? Speak to me, please!"

"Jaune... There's so much I want to say..." She choked up, crying again. "I... I don't know how to say it... or what..." She sobbed hysterically, breaking down.

"It's ok." He gently stroked her hair, trying to calm her. "I'm here for you, no matter what. I always have been, and I always will be."

The two held each other in that comforting embrace in near silence for a moment. How long it lasted, neither one knew.

"Jaune... So much... has happened... It feels like... darkness has closed in. I wanted to find some source of light... something, or someone, to hold onto."

He brushed her tears away with his thumb. "It's ok. You're safe here. No one will hurt you." They both felt a wind chill blow right past them. "You should come in, it's cold out here." The two went back inside, going through the living room. Pyrrha took off her cloak and threw it on her arm as the two newly reunited lovebirds went to the kitchen. She placed her cloak on the back of one of the dining room chairs before sitting down in that same seat. "Is there anything I can get for you? Water? Tea?"

"Both would be nice, if you are willing to go to that trouble."

"It's no trouble, really! Any particular kind?"

"Do you have rose? It's my favorite."

Jaune briefly smiled at her as he filled a glass with water. "You're in luck. Mom and dad stopped by the store yesterday and got some."

He handed her a glass of water and started preparing the rose tea. He sat down beside her as he waited for the water to boil. Tangerine, who had been standing there the whole time, silently raised her eyebrows in response to Pyrrha's arrival.

"Pyrrha Nikos? In the flesh?" Tangerine asked, bewildered. "What brings you here?"

She sniffed, her expression turning sorrowful once again. "I can state numerous reasons why I came here."

"Is it... Cinder?" Jaune asked, his nerves tensing. Pyrrha nodded back and forth sadly. He sighed in relief before turning back to her with sad eyes. "Is this a confidential matter?"

Pyrrha sighed. "No, it isn't." She wiped away some tears from her right eye with her index finger. "When I returned home, a week after leaving Vale, I returned to find my home in charred and partially burnt remains. My parents are dead." Jaune gasped, and Tangerine was visibly downcast along with her younger brother. "They were murdered, with no trace as to who's responsible or why they did it. And my little brother, Ash, is missing."

"Oh my gosh... That's horrible. And not to sound like an idiot, who's Ash?" Jaune inquired. "I don't remember you mentioning him."

"Really? I never told you about Ash Nikos, my younger brother?" Jaune nodded. Pyrrha tried to continue without her voice breaking. "Well, he's about Ruby's age. He's a student at Sanctum Academy. He's very kind and we hardly ever fought and my brother... and before I really met you and all of my other friends at Beacon, he was the only true friend I had. I miss him. What I wouldn't give to know he's alright... or where he is."

"I'm sure he's out there somewhere." Tangerine commented.

Jaune added, "She's probably right. Although... this revelation... I'm not sure whether to be relived or depressed, as this is not what I thought it was."

"Why, what did you think it was?" Pyrrha asked.

"Jaune! Where's my tea?!" a commanding voice shouted from upstairs.

"Oh, not again..." The blond haired warrior grumbled.

The pot in the back was starting to boil over. That was Rouge's rose passionfruit tea. "Ahh!" He quickly lifted it up, letting the liquid fall down the sides of the pot. Some of the hot liquid touched his hand, causing them to feel the burn just a little bit. He groaned as he set the pot down on a non-heated part of the stove top. "Damn Rouge..."

Pyrrha observed the situation, confused. "What's going on?"

He grabbed a tea plate and a tea cup from the cabinet, set the cup on the plate and poured the super hot liquid as he answered, "Long story short, I've been punished for forging transcripts and been punished as housekeeper and butler. Rouge has been using me for various tasks of servitude, the most common demand being for tea of some kind."

The young lad was about to run off, but Tangerine stopped him with her hand. "You have a girlfriend to comfort. I'll help out just this once and take the heat from Rouge."

"Really? Thank you, Tangerine!"

He handed the tea to her as she briefly glared at him. "Don't mention it."

"Jaune!"

"Coming Rouge!" Jaune exclaimed.

Tangerine then left with the tea. "Jaune!" She dashed up the steps as quickly and carefully as she could. "Jaune Arc!" The tomboy dashed down the hallway, entered Rouge's room and stood beside her, Rouge not even looking closely at her. "Oh, there you are. About time you got here." She took the tea plate, grabbed the cup and took a sip before swallowing. Then she widened her eyes and did a double take. "Wait a second! You don't look like the butler!"

She smirked. "I'm not."

Rouge was unamused. "Did Jaune rope you into doing his chores for him?"

"No, I volunteered to take your tea up to you. Jaune's comforting his girlfriend right now. I may know nothing of love, but I can see that she really needs him right now."

The femme fatale raised an eyebrow. "Pyrrha Nikos herself? Here? That seems ludicrous."

"Come on, Rouge." Tangerine folded her arms as her older sister took another sip. "When was the last time I ever lied to you?"

The model mused to herself as she set the teacup on the plate. "Three years ago, when you first started hunting criminals, on the first day, you claimed that it was easy. Azura saw right through it and you then confessed that you were almost killed twice. You may be a lot of things, but being a liar isn't one of them... Still I find it hard to believe..."

The street fighter sighed. "If you don't believe me, I'll bring you to them."

Rouge promptly stood up, taking her tea with her and the two started to make their way downstairs.

Back in the kitchen, Pyrrha was still speaking to Jaune. She looked at him curiously. "Same question from earlier, what did you think it was?"

"Well... it's been several weeks since we went all the way. I thought that... you might have been pregnant."

She chuckled thrice. "I can't believe you thought that."

"Well... I... I never thought I'd see you again. What was I supposed to think?"

"Hmm... I guess that's fair, but I did tell you I'm on birth control."

"You did." He sighed. "I guess I was just paranoid."

"It happens to the best of us."

The two eldest Arc sisters entered the room. Tangerine motioned her arms towards Pyrrha. "See? Would I ever lie to you?"

"Okay, I admit. You were right, you're not a liar." Rouge took another sip of tea before addressing the red-haired warrior. "I hope you're finding yourself at home here."

"I am, although I haven't even been here all that long." She looked at the siblings who were opposites of each other before turning to her boyfriend. "I'm guessing these are some of your many sisters you told me about?

"Yep, these are the two oldest-Rouge and Tangerine. The fashionista and the tough tomboy."

Pyrrha looked at Rouge curiously. "Hmm... It seems that you have the appearance of a fashion model, let it seems like there's more that meets the eye."

"Quite astute, Ms. Nikos. I am a professional huntress."

"So you graduated from Beacon."

"Shade, actually. I was a member of team LUNA. Sounds exactly as it's spelled."

She took another sip of tea as Pyrrha looked at her in wonder. "Really? Why Shade? Then again, people still ask me 'Why Beacon?' so I might not have any real reason to ask..."

The model set the teacup down. "No, it is a valid question. I choose Shade Academy since Shade is said to be more welcoming to potential huntsmen and huntresses, they have the cheapest tuition, which is still not cheap, and it was closer to home."

"Why would cheapest tuition matter? Aren't you incredibly wealthy as a model?"

"You see..."

"Well..." Jaune said at the same time. He continued, "Long story. Mind if I tell her?"

She smiled. "Do tell."

"I may have forgotten to mention that my paternal grandfather, while he was a great hero, had a huge gambling problem. When he died, he left my father with a massive debt of 125 million. We still have six million more Lien to pay up before we get out of it. Anyway, due to the massive debt, many of us who wanted to be hunters looked to a different path. Since Rouge was the oldest, she got to continue the family legacy and she was the only one who got any formalized combat training, went to a primary combat school prior to her huntress trainee days, and even got a legitimate letter of recommendation. It is also this reason that Tangerine choose to be a street fighter to become a huntress. Anywho, Rouge tried to apply for scholarships, but she didn't get much. Even with the small amount of scholarship money and her earnings as a waitress, she believed she was going to drown in debt. However, about two weeks prior to the beginning of her first year, she was waiting on the table of an agent for a fashion company named _Venus_. When she brought the drink to the man, he asked her, 'You look like you have much more potential than that. You're clearly unhappy with your line of work. Why are you doing this?'

"Since she had no other tables to wait on at the moment, she answered to him, 'I'm about to enter huntsmen school, but I'm poor and I hardly have any money. I don't have much choice but to work low paying jobs to try and get out my own debt.' He smiled at her and handed her a card, saying, 'When your shift's done, call this number. You won't be sorry.' Although a bit suspicious at first, she called the number and scheduled an appointment. At this interview, she learned about _Venus_ , a different kind of fashion company that was seeking new models. She told them of her situation, and eventually, she struck a deal with the owner of the company, Venus Rosetta. The company agreed to pay for all of her college, but in return, she would work for them until she made enough money to cover what they spent on her, expecting to work for them for three to four years. They gave her the choice to start her work immediately or wait until she had graduated from Shade Academy. She chose to start immediately.

"Although it was a way to graduate debt free, she told us that she initially dreaded the prospect of being a model. She thought they would distort her image, make her feel like she had to wear a mask in the public eye, and end up being miserable. However, this was not the case, because _Venus_ isn't like the other fashion companies. Unlike other modeling industries that focus more on creating a flawless image to create an impossible standard of beauty, this one focuses more on natural beauty, and doesn't use makeup as an agent to hide flaws, but rather to enhance what was already there. According to what they told her, she had, and still possesses, a lot of natural beauty. During her years at the academy, while simultaneously doing her schoolwork, she started modeling and became even more fit, more confident and even happier than she could have expected. She enjoyed her job, so much so that after three years, when her debt was paid, she continued doing her job for money, making it her primary occupation. Of course, since she's become a model, she's become vain, overconfident and has an ego the size of Beacon Tower."

Pyrrha snickered as Rouge yelled at him, "Hey!"

"Wouldn't that ego be smaller with the CCT Tower in Beacon crumbling to the ground?" Tangerine asked.

"Most of it is still there, remember? Me and Pyrrha had to retrieve the remains of Milo and Akouo." Jaune reminded them.

"Oh yeah..."

Jaune got the pot of rose tea off the stove, this time not letting the pot boil over as he removed it from heat and got out a teacup, pouring a cup and then handing it to Pyrrha.

"Thanks Jaune. You are too kind."

"You're welcome, and really, it's no trouble. Compared to everything else I do on a regular basis, this is fairly easy."

Pyrrha took a brief sip. "I assume you're talking about the household chores."

"That and the butler related tasks I do." Rouge finished her tea and set the plate and cup on the table before walking away. Once she was out of earshot, Jaune took the plate and cup, speaking, "Rouge has been really demanding of me when I became butler. She's been milking it for all it's worth."

"Then why don't you stand up for yourself like you stood up to Cardin?"

He hang his head in sorrow as he put the dishes in the sink. "I don't have much choice. Subservience is part of my punishment."

"Yeah, but, hasn't she taken it a bit too far?" the tomboy asked him. Before he could answer, an alarm went off on Tangerine's scroll. She fished it out of her right pocket and opened it up. "Oh right. It's ten am. Time for me go. Better grab my gear and head out." Tangerine put it away, went up the stairs to her room and quickly grabbed some of her weapons. She came back down the stairs, wearing the blood orange arm gauntlets on her arms, a bow and crossbow on her back, a sword sheathed on her hip, along with her two signature weapons- the spear and whip. "Well, I'm off to catch criminals and make big bucks! See ya later!"

"Good luck, Tangerine!" Pyrrha exclaimed. Tangerine shut the door on her way out. "She's a bounty hunter, I presume?"

"She prefers the term street fighter or semi-pro huntress, cause to her, bounty hunter makes it seem like she has no morals. But yes, she does hunt criminals and turn them in for cash. She's also my new combat teacher."

"Alright, I understand, although... isn't that kinda dangerous for her?"

"Yeah. One could argue that it's just as dangerous as, or even more hazardous, then Rouge's job as a huntress. But however, Tangerine is a vigilante, taught herself with some guidance and she's pretty darn good at her job. She returns home with little to no injury. Most of the time."

"So, if Tangerine is skilled enough to be a teacher, why didn't you come to her before going to Beacon?"

"I guess... because I never thought about it."

"Tell me... do you regret not coming to her earlier?"

"No, because if I had, I never would have meet you."

Jaune told hold of Pyrrha's hand and gently kissed it, earning a smile and blush from her.

* * *

Meanwhile, on a rooftop of the city of Kana, the former terrorist woke up with the moon. Blake breathed in, noting to herself that today was the day. Before the White Fang agents entered the warehouse, she dashed through the city on the rooftops, jumped down and entered the warehouse from the rooftop entrance, landing on the metal railing. She knelt down and waited for the right moment. Maybe, if she was lucky, she wouldn't have to say anything, and they would just indirectly tell her where Adam was hiding. A few minutes later, a White Fang lieutenant entered the area, standing nearby the stage. The Lieutenant had white hair, a white jumpsuit and a Grimm mask covering the eyes with red markings and blue snowflake on the left. His posture and appearance looked familiar, yet where had she seen him?

Shortly after his entrance, three White Fang members joined him. The first one had dog ears, the second one had a dog tail, and the third one, a woman with a mouse tail.

"All the preparations are in place." the lieutenant spoke.

"Lieutenant Wycliffe. You're here." one of three other said. "I thought you had a meeting with Perry on the outskirts of Olympia."

"I did, but the meeting was quickly adjourned. Me and three of my fellow White Fang members barely escaped from the authorities... and that deranged street fighter who had the nerve to confront us. One of the recruits was captured and arrested, so, seeking to avoid that same fate, we fled the city. The other three were called to Mistral." Wycliffe elaborated.

"Mistral? Isn't that place a disaster zone for the White Fang right now?" the second guy asked.

"That's why Sienna sent more people over there." the third one responded.

"And might I ask, a street fighter?" the first one asked.

"A girl with orange hair and eyes who possessed multiple weapons. Also had a powerful semblance used recklessly." Lieutenant Wycliffe answered. "Either way, the venue is ready for new members tonight."

"Are you sure we won't be caught?" the third one asked.

Wycliffe nodded with confidence. "Positive. This is a city with a good amount of people. We can hide right in plain sight."

"On a completely unrelated note, how is Leader Taurus faring with the Fall of Beacon?"

"No word that I've heard of recently. Then again... White Fang messengers aren't exactly the fastest deliverers." the second one answered.

"But they don't get killed either. Do you know how many messengers have gotten killed since the Beacon CCT Tower fell?" the woman asked.

As he rambled on, Blake thought, _Man, this is taking a while... Come on, Blake. Patience._

"So where did Master Taurus retreat to after the events that occurred at Beacon?"

Blake accidentally knocked a bolt of place as she kept herself from slipping and falling as she set her hands down, a rattle was heard and a bolt fell loose. She tried to grab it. "Oh shot!" she whispered.

"He went to..." The bolt fell down to the floor and bounced once before landing right in front of them. "Hold on. Something doesn't seem right." She looked up and saw Blake. "An intruder!"

"Well, so much for not being seen." Blake said to herself. She jumped down and showed herself to the criminals, unsheathing Gambol Shroud as soon as she landed.

"Wait a second. I know you!" Lieutenant Wycliffe cried out. "You're the stray cat faunus Blake Belladonna! You no-good traitor!"

She looked him calmly, almost pleading with him. "You don't have to do this, Wycliffe. Just tell me where Adam Taurus is and I won't have to hurt you."

"We don't need to tell you." The girl said to her. "You'll find him... when we send you right to him! You're gonna pay for your crimes, Belladonna!"

* * *

"Ow!" Pyrrha exclaimed, rubbing the back of her head.

"Sorry! I'm not trying to hurt you!" Amethyst exclaimed.

Amethyst stood on a stool with a purple hairbrush in her hand, trying to brush out Pyrrha's hair for her. The other sisters, save for Rouge and Tangerine, were sitting around in the living room as Pyrrha knelt on the floor before Amethyst.

"I know it's not your fault." Amethyst continued brushing as Pyrrha spoke. "It's my fault for not keeping my mane neatly brushed over the last several days.".

The little gem was confused for a moment. "Mane? Don't horses only have manes?"

"It's just another way of saying hair. Just keep brushing please."

Tangerine came down the stairs, holding a rolled up poster in her hand and a black marker in the other one. "I hate to bother you, but do you mind signing this?"

She unfurled the poster of Pyrrha Nikos, showing her with a red background in a combat ready position. sighed. "Sure, I suppose."

Pyrrha took the marker and signed the poster, Tangerine smiling as she did so. "Thanks. I know you're a star and all that, but I'm smart enough to realize that you have your own battles. We all do."

"You are wise beyond your years. Not many of my fans realize that underneath the image, I'm just like you guys."

"People do look up to you- they see you as a hero. Some, like me, even see you as a source of inspiration." She got out her fire-dust spear, which was similar in design to Milo, except slightly bulkier, fire red and orange and visible fire dust seen at the tip and throughout the stem of the weapon. "Where do you think I got the inspiration for my first signature weapon, Torch-Ture?"

"Torch-Ture? Hmm. Interesting play on words."

Tangerine put the weapon away. "Thank you."

"Do you believe that I'm really a hero after what happened back there in the Amity Colosseum?"

"Of course! And those people that believe you meant to do an act of malice are dumb and blind!"

Pyrrha slightly smiled as Emerald added, "I wouldn't say dumb or blind, but perhaps bamboozled and jumping to conclusions. Then again, what is the audience supposed to think? They don't know better- but we do."

Azura and the others nodded in agreement as Tangerine left to take the newly signed poster and marker to her room. Acacia broke the brief silence by asking her, "So, where exactly are you going to sleep?"

"That is a good question." Pyrrha said. "I'm not even really sure."

"I think every room is taken up." Amethyst worked her way through a nasty knot in Pyrrha's hair.

"I thought we had a spare bedroom for guests. It just hardly gets used." Indigo answered.

"We used to have a spare room, but since no one used it for years, Emerald converted it into an indoor botanical garden." Azura answered.

"Oh, I think I will be able to find my own arrangements."

"And done. One fully brushed mane."

She grabbed her black scrunchie and put her hair back up. "Thanks, Amethyst."

The little girl beamed a bright smile at her. "No problem, although, you had a lot of knots in there, there particularly nasty ones."

Pyrrha smiled. She was slowly starting to fell at home. Several hours later, night had fallen. Pyrrha had moved her stuff to Jaune's room and was in her pajamas. Jaune threw his pajama top on before taking a seat next to Pyrrha on the twin size bed.

"I know you like the idea of spooning and forking, even if this bed is too small for both of us." Jaune said.

"It gives us a reasonable excuse to cuddle. Then again, do we really even need an excuse to cuddle?" Pyrrha playfully asked him. "I mean, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that we're boyfriend and girlfriend."

He nodded. "They do."

"Do they know of... the home runs we scored?"

"No, and I'd rather keep it that way. I thought the older ones would scold me if they knew, so I said nothing about it."

"That's understandable." She stroked his face. "Can we continue this?"

"I would, but... I'd rather not be caught by my family members. Also, you need time to heal and properly grieve."

"Fair enough." She smirked. "Perhaps sometime day, we can return to that particular activity... Until then, you being here is all that I can ask for."

He told her, "Well I'm not going anywhere."

A moment later she responded, "And neither am I."

The two leaned in close and locked lips. As the lovebirds lay there on Jaune's bed, Pyrrha pinned him down and threw one arm around his neck, letting the other hand play with his ear. Jaune snaked his right arm around her waist and let his free hand roam to her buttocks, then let it slip down farther, softly grasping at the upper backside of her leg. She moaned softly, leaning in closer to him and diving her tongue into his mouth. His tongue snaked towards her in response. As they broke the kiss for air, Pyrrha stared into his eyes as he looked at her lovingly.

"I love you, Jaune. I have always loved you."

"I love you too, Pyrrha. I can not thank you enough for accepting me for who I am."

Unbeknownst to the two of them, one of the Arc sisters overheard their every word. She smirked, only her mouth being visible with the shadows in the hall, before walking away.


	28. Cut the Cord

The duel began with Lieutenant Wycliffe firing his laser gunshots towards Blake. Quickly cartwheeling backwards, she evaded his attack and the advances of the other White Fang members. She converted Gambol Shroud into its gun form and fired away with it, quickly knocking down the dog tailed faunus, almost smirking as he was knocked out against a wall.

 _These guys should be easy._ Blake thought to herself. Wycliffe charged towards her, a switchblade in hand as she barely missed having her palm cut by his weapon. The blade got stuck in the wall after Blake's sidestep. _Ok, maybe not._

The mouse tailed faunus came up to her, lashing out with her bare hands as she blocked the scratches and punches with her weapon. Not realizing the dog eared faunus was slowly creeping up behind her, she was taken by surprise upon being kicked in the back, sending her flying before crashing on the ground. She growled as she got up, now weaponless. The cat faunus starting running towards her weapon in a diagonal curve, all the baddies on her heels. Lieutenant Wycliffe continued to fire the laser gun at her as she ran. They struck her multiple times with their weapons or bare fists, only to realize it was a shadow of her each time.

"Ah-hem!"

The three turned their heads to the stray cat faunus, smirking with her sheath and katana in her hands.

"There you are, you filthy cat!"

The dog tailed faunus slowly woke up as the mouse tailed woman got out her weapon- a sword with electric dust, and charged towards the traitor, attempting to shock her. As electric dust shockwaves came towards her, they didn't travel too far before the dust hit her, causing her to be shocked with several lightning bolts, stunned in place before she was knocked to the wall with the mouse tailed woman grabbing her right wrist and hovering the sword only inches away from her neck. Blake put her left hand, the one with the sheath in it, behind her back, pressed to the wall as Lieutenant Wycliffe and the two dog faunus approaching her.

"Whatever you had planned, it ends now." Wycliffe stated.

"Ha! Did you really think that one woman like you could take down the entire White Fang?" the mouse woman asked. Blake didn't answer. "Also, why are concealing your ears with that bow?"

"Isn't it obvious? She wants to hide her history, her heritage." the dog tailed faunus answered.

"But does she really believe that she can hide the truth from the world forever?" the dog eared faunus asked them. "She's just a foolish traitor!"

He tried to swipe her ribbon, but Blake got out her sheath from behind her back, knocking the sword out of the mouse woman's hand and punched the incoming opponent in the chest, knocking the air out of his lungs. The catwoman picked up her sword and, using enough aura to glow for a second or two, broke it in half with her knee. The mouse tail woman gasped in terror as Blake cast the pieces of the broken weapon aside. She kicked her down with more force, knocking her into her two fellow soldiers.

Wycliffe groaned and sighed. "I hoped that I wouldn't have to do this, but I don't have much choice."

He pointed the gun in his left hand to her along with his switchblade on his right. Somewhat reluctantly, he charged towards her, ready to take her down, but she countered the attack by using the sheath with full force against his head, knocking him out. She quickly tied them up with some nearby rope and as the White Fang members all woke up, proceeded to glare menacingly at them.

"I'll ask you again- where is Adam Taurus?" Blake interrogated.

"You'll never make us talk! Never!" the mouse girl proclaimed.

"Just tell me what I want to know, and no one else gets hurt."

"We're not talking!" the dog eared faunus exclaimed.

Blake held up her katana in front of the prisoners. "I won't hesitate."

"You' you'r... you're bluffing!" Wycliffe stammered.

"I'm not bluffing." She slowly moved her sword towards his neck. "I'll ask you this one last time; where is Adam Taurus?"

"Okay, I'll talk! He went to Mountain Glen!" he confessed.

"Got it." She drew back her blade, sheathed her weapon and strapped it on her back before beginning to walk away.

"Wait!" She suddenly stopped. Wycliffe looked at her sadly as she slowly turned to face him."Why are you doing this? I remember you when you first became a fighter for the White Fang. You were but twelve years old. You did everything a White Fang member would do with joy and pride. You were so loyal, you went above and beyond. What happened?"

"I've changed. Sorry, Dave. Those days are over." Blake folded her arms. "I'm not going to aid you or your organization in your ways of violence anymore."

"Is that why you left? Is that why you're trying to find and presumably kill Adam Taurus? To weaken us? Or is it because of something he may have done to you?"

"It's not what he did to me." she answered. "It's what he did to my friend." She tightened her fists and held back a few tears. "For all he's done, I'll never forgive him! And there's nothing you can say or do to stop me!"

She turned and began to walk away once more as the mouse tailed one cried out, "You will never succeed, Blake! Never!"

"Do really want this, little flower?"

She secretly widened her eyes in concern to Wycliffe's question, but she kept her resolve as she walked forward. "I do."

The stray cat faunus left the warehouse and put her back to the wall. The memory the lieutenant mentioned came back to her. When she met him for the first time... David "Dave" Wycliffe was a blacksmith and weapons engineer/technician situated in Menagerie. If you were part of the White Fang and wanted your own custom weapon, Dave was your guy. Many of the specialist and elite agents went to him for weapon creation and repairs. When Blake agreed to become a fighter, Adam took her to his workshop to make her own custom weapon. Man, that was a long time ago... Long before he became lieutenant, long before Blake betrayed the White Fang.

Adam, seventeen at the time, wore a plain black jacket as part of his attire, along with a plain Grimm mask. Blake, who was but twelve, wore black shorts and a white t-shirt with her hair in a ponytail. The two opened the door to a dark beachside cottage, seeing in the darkness a bookshelf overstuffed with books and pieces of scrap metal on the top. In front of them was a desk with several unfinished weapons on its surface.

"I always forget that he keeps this place dark..." Adam mumbled to himself. "Hey, Dave?" He looked around. "Where are you?"

"Right here." He answered as he turned the lights on with the flick of a switch. Lacking a mask, his oblong smiling face and blue eyes were seen by the two faunus. "Hello there, Adam. Long time no see. Traded your shades for a mask, eh?"

"I'm helping to be sure that the ones who oppose us don't see who we are, yet never forget what we looked like."

The man looked at the adolescent girl. "And who are you, young one?"

"Blake Belladonna." she answered. "I came to you to ask for your help in making me a weapon."

"This little flower seems a little young to be White Fang combatant." Dave turned to Adam. "How old is she?"

"Twelve. Closer to twelve and a half, actually." He looked disgruntled. "Don't worry, Dave. I'll be sure that nothing happens to her."

The weapons engineer looked at Blake, who was smiling brightly. "I'd hate to see something happen. But if she's ready and willing, I'll see what I can't do."

"I'm ready!" Blake exclaimed.

A few brief images of the blueprint of her weapon Gambol Shroud appeared in her mind before switching to him melting down the metal to make her weapon, assembling the pieces together and then handing it to Blake.

"Thank you, Mr. Wycliffe!"

"You're welcome. Please, just call me Dave."

Adam turned to her curiously. "So, what will you name it?"

"Gambol Shroud." she answered.

The bull-horned faunus smiled. "How appropriate for your fighting style. And personality."

"Good luck out there, little flower." Dave said to her as they left.

"Thank you!"

She returned to the present and started to make her way back to where she never imagined herself returning to... Mountain Glen. As she did this, she thought on the friends and allies she had in the White Fang that she left behind, particularly Dave.

 _He may have built my weapon, but I owe nothing to him. The chords are cut. The bonds between me and current White Fang were already severed. Now that I know where Adam is, I will stop him, no matter what, or who gets in my way._

* * *

The next day, back at the Arc family home, all household members (save for Tangerine), were having family dinner around the table. Pyrrha sat next to Jaune, slowly feeling like she actually belonged here.

"How is it?"

She took another bite of tuna noodle casserole before answering, "It's really good. Thanks again for letting me stay here."

"Well why wouldn't we?" Azure asked.

"It almost feels like... I'm intruding in on your lives."

"You are not intruding, Pyrrha." Jaune said. "You are always welcome here."

The gladiator girl smiled and resumed eating her meal. "So... Emerald. You said that you would tell us soon what your desired job choice was. What is it?" Roux asked.

The bookworm said nothing as she took another bite. "Come on, Emerald. Spill the beans." Azura prodded.

Acacia looked at her worriedly as she took a drank of water. "Emerald, is something wrong?"

She put up a finger as she chewed her food before swallowing and answering, "Well... The reason I've been reluctant to tell you of my desired career is because I'm scared that, no wait. I know that most, if not all of you won't like the idea that I have in mind."

"Well don't keep us hanging! What is it?" Indigo asked.

"Alright. I have thought long and hard about this decision for many weeks- and I have decided that... I want to be a messenger."

Gasps were heard all around the table. Azura nearly choked on her water and Rouge choked on her tea.

"Uh, that was unpleasant. It went down the wrong way. I hate when that happens..." Rouge grumbled to herself.

For a moment, everyone sat in stunned silence. That is, until Jaune asked five seconds later, "Are you insane?!" He then added, "No wait, let me rephrase that; You're insane!"

"Why would you do this?" Acacia asked.

"You have no combat experience! If you run into a Grimm, you'd be toast!"

Emerald kept her neutral expression even as some the others started arguing as to why they thought it was a bad idea. "Guys, stop!" She sighed. "I knew you guys were going to react like that. I may not have combat experience, but I do have something else that no one else has that makes me a perfect candidate for the job. Think about it."

The room was left in silence for more than a few seconds. "I think I can comprehend Emerald's reasoning behind her decision." Pyrrha began. "With the ability to lock her emotions, she believes she can avoid the Grimm because she won't feel fear, sadness or any negative emotion and be able to do her task without interference."

"That is correct. With the emotion lock, no Grimm can find me, and no Grimm means no problems, big success and lots of money."

"Hmm... When you put it that way, I suppose it makes sense." Rouge stated before taking another bite of food.

"You can't really be supporting this, can you? That's just nuts." Jaune protested.

"I don't know. She does have a valid point." Azura added.

Jaune growled and said nothing, continuing to look angry. After dinner, he and Pyrrha spoke in the living room. "Jaune, what's wrong?"

"I just can't believe that they easily support her. When they learned of my decision to forge transcripts for Beacon, I was scolded to no end for being reckless. Now Emerald has that same recklessness and she gets praised? Ugh!"

"I... I understand your pain. But then again... Emerald didn't do anything illegal or immoral. She's just doing something dangerous and risky. She does believe she can avoid it with her semblance."

"That's true. I guess maybe I was a bit jealous of her getting all the praise. Despite my accomplishments, I get no praise, no reward. Only punishment."

Pyrrha looked at him sadly. "Really? Nothing?"

"Absolutely nothing. With this, with my punishment... with Rouge... I feel like crawling into a hole and fighting her at the same time. This bad paradoxial feeling isn't helping matters."

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure things will get better. Eventually."

He wasn't sure if he could believe her. Later that evening, Jaune was fighting against his older sister. As the dueled raged on, Tangerine attempted to pin him to the tree with the kama scythes in her hands, nearly denting the armor he wore, but he used his sword to knock them out of her hands before kicking her down.

Tangerine smirked as she laid there with her arm bent, before getting. "Well done, Jaune. You have certainly improved. And now you know it as well."

Pyrrha smiled at her beau. "You have really improved under her tutelage, haven't you?"

"Yeah, Tangerine has been making me work very hard with these combat lessons. Then again, I knew what I signed up for."

Wearing a prideful smirk on her face, Tangerine turned to Pyrrha, "Your job was to help him get good quickly. My job is to help him get better."

The sound of a door being slid open was heard, distracting Jaune from his train of thought as Azura and Rouge entered the backyard, Azura shutting the door thereafter. "Good evening, ladies and gentleman." Rouge greeted.

Tangerine gave her a skeptical glare. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here observe. I want to see his improvement, or lack thereof."

Azura nodded in affirmation as she stood by her older sister. Jaune softly growled. The training session continued smoothly, as Jaune went through more duels and dodging exercises.

"Well done, Jaune!" Pyrrha cheered.

"Thank you, you're too kind!" Jaune responded.

"So you really are in love?" Rouge asked him.

"Yeah, we are. What makes you doubt that?"

"Oh nothing.." She quickly added, "It's just that... you've been naughty. You've done it."

Jaune looked at her like she had grown two heads. "Done what?"

"Don't lie to me, I know you and Pyrrha have done _it_."

Jaune knew what she was implying and glared at her. "I have not done it!"

"Uh, I don't know what 'it' is, but whatever 'it' is, they have done it." Azura awkwardly chirped.

The fashionista smirked, pumping her fist slightly. "I knew it. I really don't understand what's going on in that crazy, demented head of yours. First you forge transcripts for Beacon Academy, take your great-grandfather's weapon that you have no idea how to use, somehow acquire the money to go to Beacon, likely through illegal or immoral means, and then while you were at Beacon, you try and seduce one of the most gifted warriors in the whole world!"

"I did not seduce her!" Jaune truthfully exclaimed. Azura was still confused as ever. "That is a load of garbage and you know it!"

"True or untrue, I just don't understand why she would willingly aid you and adore you. You've done nothing to deserve her help, or her love. You don't deserve to be where you are now. You owe your success, as minor as it is, to her, and it is a debt you can never repay. So I'm trying to understand- why would she do this? Did she just forget about your sins? Or did she really just not care? The only reason I can see why she could possibly help you, agree to train you, or even fall in love with you, is because she is just as much of a fool as you are."

Jaune stood up angrily, pointing at his eldest sister. "That's it! That's the last straw! I challenge you to a duel!"

Pyrrha and Azura gasped. Even Rouge looked at him in surprise for a brief moment. Tangerine's eyes opened wide in shock, before turning to her younger brother concerned. "Uh, Jaune..."

He did not notice her concerned look as he continued, "I've had enough of this! I've had enough of you treating me like dirt! You've been insulting me, ridiculing me, criticizing me, and knocking me down for far too long! This is the final straw, Rouge! I will fight you and prove to you that I'm worthy of becoming a huntsman!"

She laughed at him. "I accept your measly challenge. When and where?"

His glare intensified. "Tomorrow, out here in the yard, at sunset."

"You're on." She smirked. "You're going to get beaten, and once I shove your face into the ground, you'll realize just how right I am!"

She walked away, leaving him even more angry and determined than ever. Tangerine facepalmed at his action and sighed deeply. "Are you done?"

"Yes." he said, annoyed.

"Now then. Let me respond with this." She breathed in deeply before booming in her loudest voice, causing everyone present to cover their ears. "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?! YOU JUST CHALLENGED ROUGE TO A DUEL! I WOULDN'T EVEN CHALLENGE HER AND I HAVE MORE EXPERIENCE! YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND!"

"I know, I know, this is bad! Are you done lecturing me?"

She sighed again. "At least you're smart enough to realize what you've done."

The other Arc sisters, save for Rouge, came rushing to the yard. Acacia quickly slid the door open and frantically examined the scene, quite worried before her eyes met with those who were already present. "Are you guys alright? We all heard this loud scream coming from the yard. We were worried someone might have attacked."

Jaune sighed. "No, Tangerine was scolding me for doing something stupid."

Emerald looked at him accusingly. "What did you do?"

"Nothing." Azura and Tangerine glared at him. Even Pyrrha gave him a questionable look. He sighed, holding his hands in surrender and caving in to the truth. "I challenged Rouge to a duel."

Gasps were heard from Indigo, Acacia and Amethyst. Emerald, however, was not surprised. "So the camel's back has been broken." She wrote something down on a notepad with a pen. "My prediction has come to pass."

"You're not really going to fight her, are you big brother?" Amethyst asked, almost pouting.

"I have to, little gem. Rouge has been treating me like dirt since basically forever, now more than ever with my return from the devastated Beacon, she has ridiculed, shamed and humiliated me to no end, and now she's insulted me and my girlfriend! She's trying to say that I'm not worthy of the knowledge I've gained or the love I've received from her! I'm going to fight that overconfident queen bee, and I will show her just how far I've come!"

A timer on a scroll went off. "Well, I'd continue the lesson, but we're out of time." Tangerine turned off the alarm before turning back to her brother, sighing heavily. "I hope you know what you're getting into."

Aggravated to no end, Jaune left without saying a word, and Pyrrha followed him. Tangerine looked at the blond warrior as he walked away sadly with fear. "Oh, this won't end well..."

"I have to agree." Indigo said.

Azura folded her arms. "I'm beginning to wonder if Rouge just used me as a pawn to ignite Jaune's temper and humiliate him. Was this her plan all along?"

"That's... not outside the realm of possibility." Emerald noted.

"Either way, this is bad." Acacia said.

"Agreed. Very bad." Amethyst added after a moment of silence.

The six youngest Arc sisters stood there in somber silence, each concerned at how the conflict between Rouge and Jaune was going to hell in a hand basket.

The two lovebirds walked through the kitchen and living room, leaving the sight of the Arc sisters behind, and went up to his room. Behind him, Pyrrha asked, "Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not. This is just too much..."

"You're going to need all your skill for this match. And probably a lot of luck too."

Jaune started climbing up the steps to the second floor, slightly annoyed but trying not to display it in his voice. "Why do you say that?"

"You just challenged a professional huntress, Jaune! This isn't the same as fighting Cardin or an average Beacon student. You're going up against the real deal."

The realization of the situation hit him like a ton of bricks and as he reached the head of the stairs, his eyes widened in horror. Both of them knew that he was scared. "What have I done?"

* * *

The captain glared at the sailors as Blake stood in front of them, her arms in front of her as she looked nervously at the captain of the ship. "What have I told ye? No bringing strangers aboard me ship unless it's recruiting season!"

"I'm sorry captain, but I found this one stranded at sea. She looked like she was ready to drown! I couldn't just do nothing!"

She inspected the girl. "Hmm.. This lass looks like me. She could be a doppelganger. Oh wait, she has amber eyes vs my ocean blue. Oh well, still an interesting lookalike. Cute bow, lassie."

"Oh, um, thank you." Blake smiled nervously.

"Remind me, how did you get lost at sea again?"

Blake quickly replayed the events in her mind since she left the warehouse-roaming around to find no airport, hiring a pilot to take her to Mountain Glen, the engine of the helicopter failing and her and the pilot being forced to jump into the ocean before the pilot went another way, never to be seen again before finding the nearest ship and climbing on top of it.

"Long story short, I'm on an important quest to defeat Adam Taurus. After roaming around for weeks, I found and interrogated White Fang Lieutenant Wycliffe, and discovered his location. But alas, the helicopter I was hitching a ride on malfunctioned in midair, forcing me to jump down into the ocean."

"Blimey! What bad luck! Well, you're safe here. This ship won't be sinking anytime soon." the captain reassured her. "Although, you mention the location of the Vale White Fang Leader. Where is he?"

"In Mountain Glen, a ruined settlement in Vale."

"Hmm... Thanks for the information, Ms..."

"Belladonna. Blake Belladonna." The raven-haired beauty looked at her lookalike. "And you are?"

The captain smiled. "Noire. Corvina Noire."

"Thank you, Captain Noire. Would you be willing to take me back to the mainland so that I may continue my pursuit of him?"

"I would be more than happy to assist you." She cupped her hands and looked to her crew. "Avast ye, me hearties! Adjust the sails and set a course for mainland Vale!"

"Aye-aye, Captain!" one of the sailors exclaimed.

The sailors followed Corvina's orders without hesitation.

"I can't thank you enough for lending me your aid."

"It be no trouble, lassie. Xanthe!" A young man, about Blake's age, stepped forth before the two raven-haired women. He had an average build and height, he was a man with blond messy hair and red eyes. He wore black jeans with a flame design on the bottom of the left leg and a black button up dress shirt that was slightly too big for him with yellow sleeve cuffs, rolled up to show his hands. "Arrange temporary living quarters for the young lass."

"Aye-aye, Captain Noire." He turned to Blake. "If you would kindly follow me."

Xanthe and Blake left to arrange Blake's new quarters aboard the ship. As soon as the sailor and the stray lass left, Corvina smirked and thought to herself, _Thanks for the information, Miss Belladonna. Adam's death will cause the White Fang to slowly crumble. And when the White Fang fall, the faunus race will fall thereafter!  
_


	29. It's My Turn

Author's Notes:

-To Guest; Yes, Jaune couldn't keep his mouth shut and challenged Rouge to a duel. Then again, it's all a part of his character development. And yes, Blake is unknowingly helping the Noire Armada, the human supremacist group. If she finds out the truth about the captain, and/or Corvina Noire finds out the truth about Blake, it won't end well... Yeah, this is turning into a hot mess. Now then, back to the story. Can Jaune beat his older sister? Let's find out.

* * *

"This is a bad idea. A _really_ bad idea."

This was what Emerald Arc said to Jaune as the two of them, plus Pyrrha, Tangerine, Acacia, Azura, Indigo and Amethyst departed from the entrance to Jaune's room and walked through the upstairs hall to the staircase. Jaune, Emerald and Pyrrha were in front, with the remaining Arc sisters, save for Rouge, not too far behind them.

The young blond scoffed, horribly offended. "And like your idea to become a messenger isn't any better?"

On his left, the bookworm could smell the sarcasm coming from his mouth and turned to look at him with a glare in the eye. "Hey, I can avoid the Grimm with my semblance. No Grimm means no problems. No problems means huge success. Huge success means lots of cash. Lots of cash means we get out of that debt quicker, and getting out of that debt means that we're no longer in poverty. What part of that do you not understand?"

"You have no combat experience! If you encounter even a single Grimm, you're toast!"

"That's why my emotion lock will be up at all times. I can avoid the Grimm."

Amethyst covered her ears with her hands as their argument continued. "Negative emotions are just beacons! A Grimm could still find you even if you can't feel fear!"

"Which will make it easier for me to retreat in such an unlikely encounter. If I encounter White Fang terrorists, thieves or other criminals, I got pepper spray to hurt them with and get away. I've planned out wisely and strategically for every possible situation. You on the other hand, have acted carelessly and recklessly and because of it, you are about to do something extremely stupid! You're challenging Rouge, who not only has over a decade's worth of combat experience and graduated from Shade Academy, but also dueled very well in her first Vytal Festival Tournament, winning in the team and doubles round, was a finalist during the following Vytal Festival Tournament, taking sixth place during her fourth and final year at the academy, and, right after her graduation, saved an entire village in Vacuo from destruction all by herself! You are going up against a professional, and you're still a beginner!"

The other siblings, save for Tangerine, tensed up as Emerald spoke her previous argument. Tangerine just appeared annoyed as Jaune continued, "I am not a beginner! I've been training, fighting Grimm, White Fang agents and other miscellaneous threats for a year!"

"That doesn't change the fact that she's way above your pay grade! You're going to get beaten!"

"What choice do I have?! She insulted my honor, and my girlfriend! I'm not backing down," The young warrior pointed at his younger sister accusingly. "and I thought you were supposed to be supporting me!"

"Guys, knock it off both you!" Tangerine ordered. Amethyst put her hands away from her ears and the other sisters began to feel less tense. "Jaune, save your anger for the fight. Emerald, I know this looks bad, but you don't have to rub it in."

"Man, I haven't seen Emerald get into a heated argument in years." Azura stated. "I can understand Jaune's concern, yet can see why Emerald believes her plan will succeed. But either way, back to the main point; Jaune challenging Rouge! The fight of the decade! Time to figure out who to place your bets on!"

Pyrrha looked at him with an even mixture of sincerity and curiosity. "Are you ready, Jaune?"

He wore a nervous smile on his face, answering, "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

 _I'm not ready._ He actually thought.

He was the first to descend down the stairs, no one seeing his worried expression. The others followed behind him as he breathed in and out slowly, trying to calm himself. He still felt a bit nervous, but after a few more breaths, he looked determined on the outside, even if he was scared on the inside. Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, he walked through the living room to the kitchen/dining area and opened the door to the backyard. As no surprise, Rouge was standing there, spinning one of her many daggers in hand, waiting for him. Azure stood in the lower middle part of the yard towards the house with a gong in her hand and a mallet in her right. Roux stood there beside her with a whistle around his neck.

Rouge turned to face him as she noticed his presence, smirking. "So you finally decided to show up?" She stopped spinning her dagger. "I thought you would come to your senses and realized just how outmatched you are."

"Shut up, Rouge! It doesn't matter how much more experienced you are! I will teach you not to disrespect me, or my girlfriend!"

 _He's not just doing this for himself._ Pyrrha thought to herself. _He's doing this for himself, and for me..._

"Let's go over the rules of the duel, shall we?" Roux announced. "First one is the most obvious-no killing or maiming. The second one is that the duel ends when one opponent is knocked out, immobilized for ten seconds, willingly surrenders, or is no longer able to fight for any reason. Other than that, there's no rules except defeat your opponent. Now then, if anyone cares to place bets on who the winner will be, place them now."

Azure, Roux, Tangerine, Emerald, Indigo and Amethyst choose not to bet any money, but they all predicted that Jaune would most likely lose. The other siblings, Acacia and Azura bet fifteen Lien each on Rouge, much to Jaune's dismay. Only Pyrrha voted for Jaune, betting ten Lien on him, making the pot a total of 40 Lien. Acacia held the plate and its cloche with the money in her hands before setting it down on a wooden box.

"Wow. Only one person has bet with faith in me." Jaune sarcastically quipped to his other sisters, "Thanks guys."

"Sorry Jaune. Good luck though!" Azura cheered.

It didn't help him feel much better. Rouge smirked as she spun the dagger in her right hand. "You're going to get hurt, you huge imbecile!"

He glared at her to try and hide his sorrow and fear. "I'll shove those cruel words down your throat!"

"Three..." Roux began. "two..." The Arc siblings got into their combat ready positions. "one..." Jaune growled at her as she continued to smirk, this time with a more devilish spirit. "Begin!"

As Azure hit the gong, Jaune let out his battle cry and charged towards her, swinging his sword swiftly, yet Rouge just simply stepped to the right as if it was nothing. He did this once, twice and Rouge continued to dodge effortlessly. She laughed at him. "When will you realize that you're messing up?"

"How have I messed up?!"

"Your first mistake- you're not thinking with your head." Rouge answered.

Rouge attempted to strike after her claim was made, only for Jaune to push the weapon away from him as he held his sword horizontally before thrusting it upwards, knocking his older sister back.

"If I wasn't thinking with my head, would I have been able to deflect your attack?" She growled and went towards him, her dagger clashing against his sword. His sword leaned closer to her and he smirked as he had the upper hand. "Is that all you got? I've been in tougher combat situations with Tangerine!"

She laughed at him. "Oh, you underestimate me. Your second mistake- never underestimate your opponent!" She got out a second dagger and grinded the two weapons against his own, pushing Jaune back a few feet. "And you're making an even bigger mistake by underestimating me- you are looking at a bonafide huntress." She swung her daggers in an X formation, trying to get him from both sides, only for him to do a barrel roll right underneath her, and used his sword to strike her in the lower part of her leg. Not enough to severely wound her, but enough to hurt. Distracted in her agony, he took the opportunity to trip her down. Slowly after she tumbled to the ground, the young warrior got up with a smirk on his face.

"Do you still think I'm useless?!"

"So you've learned a few things." Rouge admitted as she got up. "That doesn't mean you have the right to call yourself a huntsman in training! Oh, wait, you're not! You're just nothing!" She threw her daggers at him, but Jaune swiftly jumped to his left, letting the ordinary daggers hit the tree. While he dodged this attack, she got out two new daggers- these ones loaded with fire dust. "Tell me this, can you face the flames of retribution?!" She slashed the air with both her daggers, creating fire shock-waves that Jaune leaned to his right to avoid the first one, then ducked to avoid the second one. But they were still coming. He had no chance to catch his breath as he tried to avoid the flames. As the third, fourth, fifth and six flame waves came, he ducked, then stepped left, stepped right and ducked again, only this time, he failed to lean back far enough, getting knocked right into the fence.

Jaune got up as Rouge spun her fire dust daggers in her hand. He charged towards her and attempted to strike her down, only for her to lift her daggers up to halt him from advancing his sword any further. He pressed more force, making her skid back, before she took knee to her stomach and tumbled to the ground, her daggers falling out of her hands.

Rouge got up as Jaune roasted her by yelling, "You're vain, you're insane, and you're nothing but a bully!"

"Ooh, burn!" Indigo exclaimed.

She growled at him before breathing in and calming herself. "Oh, there's no need for burns." She flipped open her purse and got out two new daggers, these ones filled with ice dust. "You just need to chill!"

She charged towards him, attempting to strike him near and far. While he dodging her ice waves, Pyrrha looked in wonder as the duel continued.

 _Even in the midst of his anger, he's planning out every attack, not just rushing in blindly. He's come so far in such little time, but... is it far enough?  
_

* * *

As the sun set over Olympia, a man with a scorpion tail braid sat underneath a tree, sighing heavily in frustration.

"I can't believe this... My search for the Spring Maiden has lead me to a dead end."

Tyrian Callows put his back to the tree and reviewed the information he was able to find, using the fading sun's rays to illuminate the words on the paper. Written in his own writing on the piece of notebook paper with an image attached to it by a paperclip, read;

 _Name- Rosa Vernal aka the_ _Spring Maiden (Relic of Knowledge)_

 _Age (at last appearance)- 14 (went missing ten years ago)_

 _Birthplace- Olympia, Vale_

 _Status- Unknown_

He looked at the photo attached to the notes he made. Rosa Vernal appeared to be in her early teenage years, likely shortly before she went missing. In a photo, she had bright ginger hair knotted into a big top bun. Her eyes were as green as grass and helped to draw attention to her gorgeous face. She wore a pink and red rose shaped skirt with layers of cloth to create the rose alongside a sleeveless pink shirt top with coral buttons. Her nails were painted with a cherry color and she wore a flower charm bracelet on her right wrist. She also wore strawberry red gladiator sandals with a hot pink pedicure seen if one looked closely, complete with a crown of faux pink roses in her hair to finish the look.

She looked like a flower girl, so happy, so free, but yet, where was she now? He sighed deeply. From what Salem told him, he knew the Vernal family had been entrusted with the Spring Maiden power, but had that cycle been broken? If he was right, then this was going to be harder than he thought.

 _Oh... My lady won't be happy to hear this news, but I suppose I better report back and tell her of my findings._

He folded up the paper gently so that the photo wouldn't get ruined before pocketing it. Reluctantly getting up, he swiftly walked away, leaving the city behind.

* * *

Back at the Arc family home, the duel raged on between the two squabbling siblings. The sun had almost set, threatening to blind the combatants and the audience as the sky was painted yellow and orange. Jaune shielded himself from the waves of dust coming from Rouge's electric dust daggers, firmly standing his ground.

"Come on, Jaune! You got this!" Pyrrha cheered.

The young warrior noticed that many of Rouge's other daggers were scattered across the yard, but so far she had no effort to retrieve them.

 _Is this because this is a low risk situation for her? Is it perhaps because she's in a familiar environment?_ Jaune asked himself. _Or does she have something else planned?_

As he got lost in his thoughts, he barely dodged her dagger's movements as she advanced towards him.

"You have no chance to defeat me, Jaune! Just surrender now!" she said as she knocked him down with a kick to the chin.

He held his chin in pain briefly before glaring at her. "I know I have little chance, but has that ever stopped me?"

The fashionista huntress smirked. "You want to believe you can win, just because you're the 'hero." Her entire body quickly glowed with red energy as she prepared her aura for her next move and Jaune looked at her, slightly worried. "The truth is, you're not a hero and you never will be. Bedazzling Light!"

"Aurgh!"

Her energy shimmered and glowed as Jaune tried to shield his eyes with his left arm, but he was too late. He felt his eyes burn as if they were on fire and screamed in pain. Many audience members gasped in terror. He let his arm down, looking to see what happened only to realize that everything turned completely black. He didn't see her, but he could hear Rouge chuckle as she asked him, "So, tell me, how does it feel, being completely in the dark?"

He could hear her laughter as she charged towards him, ducking to avoid her slash. He tried to dodge her punches, but he wasn't quite successful. As the fight continued between them, they all could see his clouded eyes, and his frantic moves as he attempted to evade Rouge's attacks with various success.

"Jaune! What did she do to him?!" Pyrrha asked worryingly.

"Rouge used her semblance, nicknamed Bedazzling Light, on him. This semblance lets her blind anyone in her line of sight for one full minute, but Rouge's semblance is very unusual in that it has an initial effect, and an aftermath effect." Emerald answered.

She looked at Emerald bewildered. "An aftermath effect?"

"Yes, an effect occurring after the initial effect. A double attack. It seems you've never heard of this phenomenon in semblances. In this case, after the blindness disappears, the victim has blurry vision for a certain amount of time."

"How long does it last?"

"It varies depending on various factors- most of them I haven't been able to determine, but one thing I've figured out is that the more base aura the victim has, the longer it takes for the blurriness to wear off."

"Oh no... Jaune has a lot of aura." She then cried out loudly, "Hang in there, Jaune!"

Jaune had trouble dodging many of Rouge's attacks, so he eventually caved in to his instincts. As he ducked, dodging her punches and jumped back to evade her kicks, he noticed the darkness was replaced by blurriness. At least it was an improvement. Acting quickly, he evaded her attack and prepared himself for what was to come.

The duel had continued on for almost twenty minutes. Still no signs of the blurry vision clearing up, but Jaune pressed on regardless. As Rouge was slammed into the fence, the hair bow holding her side bun broke and her hair tumbled past her shoulders. She grumbled something under her breath, but Jaune couldn't tell what it was as she threw more waves of electric dust lower to the ground at him, catching him off guard, shocking him. As the dust wore off, she grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the ground, skidding and leaving a dirt patch where he slid. He felt the pain shot up his back, and felt even more when Rouge placed her heel onto his chest, keeping him pinned down. He looked at her with a look of melancholy and hopelessness. This was the end, and he knew it.

The timer began as he heard a voice say, "One... Two..."

With his slightly blurred vision, he turned to see the audience about to witness his most humiliating defeat. Azura began counting the seconds with her fingers. Acacia, Amethyst, and Indigo were all frightened and wanted him to get up. Tangerine, Emerald, Azure and Roux all looked downcast. And Pyrrha... she looked so horrified and saddened at the same time. Only once before had he seen her this forlorn- right before her battle with Cinder, as Beacon fell to its knees...

"Come on, get up!" Amethyst cried out.

"Don't give up Jaune!" Indigo cheered.

"Three... four..."

"Come on, Jaune! Don't let her crush your dreams!" Acacia exclaimed.

Rouge dug her heel into his chest, adding salt to his wounds. He stared at the fashionista as she began to laugh at him. "When will you ever learn?"

"Five... six..."

"You're nothing! That's all you are, and all you ever will be!"

It was hard to think, hard to breathe. His head spun painfully, going a hundred miles an hour. His bones ached from the fight, his muscles felt like they were on fire, his vision still blurred, and he felt a hard pinching feeling where Rouge was attempting to embed her heel into his sternum, but it was nothing compared to the crushing feeling of defeat crashing down on him. _No, this can't be over..._ he thought to himself. _It just can't be..._

"Seven... eight..."

Pyrrha's eyes lowered to the ground. Jaune's spirit was being broken and there was nothing she could do to help him.

"It's over, Jaune!"

"Nine..."

"Just give up!" For a split second, an image of Cinder defeating Pyrrha from his nightmare flashed by his eyes. For maybe the smallest moment of time, he saw a similarity between the two.

The truth teller was about to say the last number, ending the match then and there, when suddenly, a white glow formed from nowhere and Rouge was kicked off Jaune, sending the model back a few feet. Paralyzed in shock, Rouge watched as he slowly stood with the aura glow formed around his left leg. Everyone gasped in awe, in complete disbelief.

In his most venomous voice, the young warrior declared, "I'm not done yet."

"What?! But.. but... how?!"

His vision cleared and he glared at her with more fury then ever, clinching his fists as he proclaimed, "I will never give up, you royal pain in the rear!" Aura slowly began to surround him, starting from the other leg, slowly manifesting through his body super-charging himself. "You've been treating me like dirt since I was born, and you think that just because you're the oldest that your younger siblings can't succeed, but you're wrong! For as long as I can remember, you've been treating me like I'm nothing, and more recently, like I'm a slave! Those days are over, Rouge! I have several reasons to fight, and I won't stop no matter what!"

Quickly overcoming her shock, she retrieved all the daggers she used earlier, throwing the first two ordinary ones at him, before throwing waves of fire, electricity, wind and ice at him in rapid succession, only for him to step to the side and out of the way for each one. He moved even faster, and as he swung his sword at her, he knocked the daggers out of her hands, and Rouge used an aura shield, only for Jaune to break it like it was made of glass. Swiftly jumping back, Rouge realized that the tables were slowly turning on her. She needed a plan to take him down, and fast.

"Do you really believe you can win?" She punched him in the arm various times, trying to weaken him. "You should just surrender now." Unfortunately for her, with his enhanced strength, wasn't working. "Heck, I order you to surrender." she said venomously.

"I will never surrender! Especially not to a woman who feels so entitled, so selfish and is the second cruelest woman in the world!"

"You don't deserve victory! You don't deserve anything!"

She tried to strike him down with her daggers, aiming for the shoulders where his armor didn't protect him, but they had no effect. No injury, not even any pain. Rouge growled and shimmered with aura, attempting to use her semblance on him again, but this time, Jaune's eyes briefly glowed with white energy and the femme fatale screamed in pain. Her semblance had been turned on her.

"How does it feel, having the tables turned?" Scared stiff and unable to dodge his moves, Jaune then delivered several punches over her body, kicked her in the stomach to the ground and before she could get up again, pulled her up by the wrist, crushed it in his grasp, causing her to groan in pain. "Bonne nuit, Rouge."

Taking his other hand, he grasped the upper part of her arm and threw her aside, slamming her back first into the tree, falling down on her stomach immediately thereafter. She clinched her fist and attempted to get up, but her body fell back down the few inches she managed to push herself up. The fashion model released the hold her fingers had in her hand as her eyes closed, slipping into unconsciousness.

The battle was over. The sun had disappeared, but the sunset colors were still there. Everyone stood in silence as Jaune's aura glow flickered and then disappeared.

"Rouge has been knocked out and is unable to battle. The winner is Jaune!" Roux declared.

"Congratulations, Jaune!" Pyrrha said, planting a kiss on his cheek.

He found himself blushing like the dork he was.

"Wow... I just. I can't... how?" Tangerine asked.

"I... I'm not sure. One thing I know I'm feeling anger and fear, and then suddenly, it feels as though a pool of aura just opened up for me.. I know that probably makes no sense." Jaune stumbled.

"I think I can get it. This 'pool' of aura must be what you used to strengthen yourself." Emerald theorized. "Looks like you have a semblance to learn how to use."

Azura got out a bucket and turned on the tap, letting water from the hose fill it up. Everyone noticed, but Acacia was the one to ask her, "What are you doing?"

"Jaune made a lot of statements on Rouge's treatment of him." The truth teller turned the water off and held the bucket by the handle as she made her way over to her older well-dressed sister. She looked at Rouge with a look of contempt. "And I want to know the truth."

She dumped the bucket of water onto the defeated huntress, instantly waking her up, causing her to shiver. "Brr! That's freezing!" She shot Azura a harsh glare. "Not cool!"

The lie detector set the bucket down and folded her arms. "Rouge Arc, what have you been hiding from us?"

Rouge brought herself to her knees. "I have nothing to hide!"

Azura gave her a mean glare. "Admit it, you've been hiding how horribly you've been treating Jaune from all of us!"

She looked down guiltily. "Okay, I admit. I've been treating Jaune horribly ever since... forever."

"And?"

"And I've been treating him dirt even more with his return from Beacon."

"And?"

"I... I've been treating him... like a slave. Like he's worthless."

"And?"

She sighed. "I... I provoked him on purpose. I overheard something I shouldn't have, used it against him, and wanted him to duel me so I could defeat him and get him to give up his dream. But..." she turned to him sadly. "you're never going to give up, are you?"

"Nope." he answered.

"But what's wrong with Jaune being a huntsman?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well... Due to the huge crushing debt, I've been the only one nudged towards the path of being a professional hunter, since I'm the oldest. All the combat training, going to a huntsmen prep school and legitimately getting into a huntsmen academy. With me carrying the family legacy, I never saw it as necessary for anyone else to take the mantle. But when Tangerine and Jaune decided to pursue that path, I thought they were doing it only for themselves. Within time, I realized Tangerine wasn't doing it for herself, or even for money. Whereas Jaune... he always mentioned the benefits of being a hunter, so I presumed he didn't know what he was getting into and that he wanted to become a huntsman for selfish reasons. And when he forged this transcripts for Beacon, I believed I was right and felt the need to punish him for his selfishness."

Jaune was silent for a moment before answering, "Maybe that was true in the beginning, but that's not true anymore. I have several reasons for fighting." He glanced over at Pyrrha briefly, her face smiling and turning as red as her hair.

"I will admit that I have been defeated." Rouge picked herself up from the ground. "But don't get too cocky." She folded her arms. "You won this duel because of luck, not skill. You still have a semblance to learn how to use. I predict that, if you forget about your lack of experience, you will act carelessly when you face an opponent stronger than me, you will lose the battle and it could cost you everything."

Gasps were heard from all save for Emerald, who raised her eyebrows in surprise. Jaune folded his arms. "Oh yeah? Well... I predict that one day, your world will come crashing down on you. You will face your own disaster and be torn in multiple directions. And when you're lost and need guidance, you will have no one to turn to."

The same gasps were heard before silent tension reigned. Both of them glared at each other, not saying a word. The silence was finally broken when Azure asked, "Rouge really has been horrible to Jaune... hasn't she?"

"Well then, perhaps we should fix that. From what we have gathered, Rouge treated Jaune like a slave during his time as butler. I meant for Jaune to be punished, not degraded." Roux initiated. "All in favor of Jaune being lifted from his punishment as butler, raise your hand." Everyone's hand, except for Rouge's, rose up immediately. Even Jaune and Pyrrha raised their hands, because they too knew how it had gotten out of hand. "Well then, Jaune, you are released from your duties as butler."

"Thank you!" He turned to the fashionista, smirking. "Rouge, eat your heart out!"

Rouge growled and turned away, leaving in a huff of anger.

"They're never going to get along, are they?" Pyrrha asked.

"Probably not." Tangerine answered.

"Oh, I think they will. Just give it time." Emerald said. "You thought you'd never get along with her, and here we are."

"Congratulations, big bro!" Amethyst cheered.

"Congrats, Jaune!" Acacia added.

"Bravo!" Indigo cheered.

"I never thought you could beat her, but you did. Good for you!" Azura complimented.

Tangerine smirked. "Looks like all that combat training payed off. Well done."

"I'm amazed at your resolve and how you managed to defeat her." Emerald smiled at her older brother. "Who would foresee the ultimate underdog defeating a pro?"

"Congratulations, Jaune. You have fought well." Azure said.

"A victory well earned. Who would have known how much you'd change within a year?" Roux asked.

Jaune smiled and walked with the others back into the house. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and let his hand hang at his side before he felt a paper wad inserted into his hand. The others walked away as he stopped to read the note.

 _Meet me back in the yard in 30 minutes. I got a surprise for you.-Pyrrha_


	30. You Look Perfect Tonight

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys and girls. Looks like with the last chapter, I've reached over 100,000 words. Yep, this is a long story.

-See if you can guess the slowed down version of the song that Pyrrha plays on her scroll. (I'll give you a hint-it's from RWBY)

* * *

Thirty minutes later, after a cleansing shower to freshen himself up, Jaune was dressed in more casual clothes- a fresh pair of jeans, a blue polo shirt and he did not wear his armor. As his bare feet went down the stairs, he noticed that Indigo was the only one downstairs. He slid open the door, entering the backyard and found it had turned completely dark outside, with the only source of light coming from the outdoor wall lamps. The only sound heard was the sound of the crickets chirping and his own footsteps. He looked around, but he didn't find her.

"Pyrrha?"

Behind him, a voice answered, "Hello Jaune."

He turned around to find her standing there, in front of the holed tree, wearing a red maxi dress that matched her hair, similar to the one that she wore at the Beacon Dance without any shoes. He then looked at her hair, which had been undone, flowing down to her waist.

"Wow. You look beautiful."

"Thank you."

He squinted his eyes at her for a brief moment. "Wait a second..." She came closer to him. "Isn't that one of Rouge's dresses?"

She smiled at him. "Yeah. What about it?"

"Nothing. Nothing." He felt the heat rush to his face as he tried to be honest and say what he meant. "It looks better on you anyway."

Pyrrha chuckled to herself briefly before she set her scroll down on the table and played some music. She gently wrapped her arms around his neck. "Shall we dance?"

[cue music-Ed Sheeran-Perfect] **  
**

He put his hands around her waist. "Certainly."

The lovers began their dance, a slow waltz, as Pyrrha stepped one foot back and Jaune stepped one foot forward. They made another step in that same direction so that each of their feet were parallel to each other. Each partner brought one foot to meet the other.

The gladiator girl smiled at him and asked, "You remember the last time we danced like this?"

Pyrrha took a step forward as Jaune stepped back.

They repeated the same steps from earlier as Jaune answered, "Yeah, during the Beacon Dance."

"It was a magical night."

He moved his left foot forward before moving his right foot up and to the side. As he did this and took his left foot to meet with his right, he took her hand and gently spun her around as she came back to him, he gave her his response. "How could I forget that? You looked gorgeous that night, and you still are."

"Oh come on, compared to that night, I'm a mess."

He whispered, "Darling, you look perfect tonight."

Pyrrha smiled and felt her face warm up a little.

As the second went to the second verse, Jaune thought, _Look at her- she's beautiful, she's strong, she's amazing._

Starting with his left foot in front of him and his right foot way in front of him to the side, he took his right foot backwards before taking it forward to the right, still holding onto Pyrrha's hand as he did so. She did a similar maneuver of steps, following his lead.

He held her up, his arm around her waist as she seemed to melt into his arms, staring at him lovingly as she stroked his cheek. He twirled her around, locking arms with her and Pyrrha glancing at him before the dance resumed.

The young blond then preceded with a change in the left foot, two right turns and with a change in the right foot.

 _Could Rouge be right?_ He looked at the woman he was dancing with, the woman he loved. _Do I really deserve her?_

As the song and the instrumental part progressed, Jaune looked sad for a brief moment as the dance continued.

Pyrrha noticed this. "Jaune, is something wrong?"

He sighed as he put his left foot forward. "Pyrrha, I need you to be honest with me and answer me what I'm about to ask you."

Pyrrha put her left foot backward. "What is it?"

He looked at her sadly, crossing his left foot behind his right. "Why did you agree to train me? Even though I didn't deserve it, you wanted to help me. Why?"

As she crossed her right foot behind her left, setting it in promenade position, she placed her hand to his cheek. "You were honest. You needed help, and I gave it to you because I saw that if you were guided on the right path, that you could become the hero you wanted to be. Also, I didn't want you to go..."

Jaune looked at her, the most beautiful woman in the world. He didn't want anything or anyone to come in between them.

He smiled halfheartedly before looking down in sadness. "I almost feel like I don't deserve you."

Pyrrha smiled at him, her fingers tilting his chin up, and as he looked at her in surprise, she looked at him lovingly - his sky blue eyes staring into her emerald eyes. "I would say otherwise." They closed their eyes and locked lips for a few seconds. The music slowed down and ended as they stood with their arms around each other.

Unbeknownst to them, all of the Arc sisters were watching them by the end of the dance.

"Aw, that's so adorable..." Acacia smiled brightly.

"Long live Arkos!" Amethyst cheered.

"To say that they're cute would be an understatement." Azura stated.

Indigo nodded in agreement. "I agree with you a hundred and ten percent."

"If you hooked up a generator to the amount of love between those two, you could power up the entire city of Olympia." Emerald said. "Maybe even several cities."

Tangerine smiled as she crossed her arms. "I gotta admit, I'm not much of one for enjoying all this warm, mushy-gushy romantic stuff, but I have to admit, those two are really damn adorable."

Rouge briefly rolled her eyes. "I really don't get what she sees in him... But, as long they're happy together, who am I to judge?"

Acacia looked at the fashion model as Jaune and Pyrrha switched from a slow dance to a tango. "Aw, you're just jealous because Jaune found his soulmate and you haven't."

"Not true!" Her face fumed red as Azura gave her a smug, knowing grin. She sighed and relented. "Ok, that's true."

The truth teller held her smirk. "Even without my lie detection semblance, you are a bad liar."

"Your face says everything." Emerald pointed out.

The femme fatale sighed in frustration. "Must you remind me of this?"

"How many guys we up to now?" Acacia asked.

Amethyst answered, "Still fourteen, I think. Am I right?"

Rouge nodded in acknowledgement before she sighed again. "This has been a bad day."

Tangerine snickered. "Bad for you, maybe."

"Good one!" Indigo gave her a low five.

Rouge took her red hair and started to redo her side bun, spinning it as she gave a look that bordered between curiosity and doubtfulness. "Do you really even believe they're soulmates?"

Amethyst gave her frown. Azura, Indigo, Emerald and Tangerine rolled their eyes before Acacia elaborated, "Come on, Rouge. First of all, Pyrrha accepted him, even after she found out the truth about his admittance to Beacon Academy. Next, Jaune tried to stop Pyrrha from fighting Cinder. Then he lost his mind after she ran away to fight the evil huntress and eventually went after Pyrrha all by himself. If that doesn't scream true love, I don't know what does."

"You don't even know what true love is." Indigo said.

"She's right ya know." Emerald added.

"Let it go, Em!" Rouge finished setting up her bun.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Fiti, Nora and Ren were back in the treehouse. On her way over to the couch, the red-head took a red marker and crossed out November 17th. The two former Beacon students sat on a green couch in front of a green oval rug.

Ren smiled. "Looks like the first day was a success."

"One day down-twenty seven to go." Nora noted.

"Twenty seven days." Ren took off his shoes. "I think we can get through that."

"Interns working at Beachside News." She chuckled. "It's crazy, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it does." Ren chuckled. "I never imagined this is what we would be doing with our lives."

"Aside from being hunters, was there anything else that you wanted to do in life?" Nora asked him. Ren looked at the girl beside him- her turquoise eyes illuminated with curiosity, her vibrant orange hair, her smile, the way her cheeks turned rosey pink...

"Ren?"

He was snapped out of his thoughts. "Can't think of anything."

"You seemed like you were lost in your own thoughts."

"Maybe I was."

* * *

The dark stone walls of Argus Harbor Max Security Prison were very good at confining prisoners. Too good, the prisoner in cell block N, cell 15 would say. The woman sitting on the raised wood rack sat with her legs curled to her chest, and took her hand using her fingers to glide through her short grey hair with nearly faded light brown streaks. The moonlight illuminated her face, showing thick greyed eyebrows, brown eyes and fair skin. As she set her feet down, knee high light tan wedge heeled boots touched the cold stone floor, her white tights and a grey tunic along with a silver owl shaped necklace. Behind her, she had dark grey owl wings protruding from her back, currently bound with super thick black cables. But she couldn't fly, even if they weren't bound.

The room was only ten inches wide from one wall to another by eight inches floor to ceiling, which meant that even if her wings weren't bound, she wouldn't be able to fly three feet before hitting her head on the ceiling. She hated being boxed in.

 _Stupid claustrophobia._ she thought to herself.

The faunus sighed loudly, but no one heard her. Since she was deemed too dangerous by the warden, all of the other prisoners on her floor were moved to a different cell block. There also weren't many guards, not to mention that they were on the opposite side of the hall, slacking off, sleeping on the job. Occasionally, she could hear their snoring. She sighed again, this time softer. She never understood the need for her captors to bind her wings. She couldn't escape either way.

She looked at her cell- a small window a few feet above her with three metal bars in the way, and the bars separating her from the rest of the hall. It didn't seem like anything was going to get better for her. Suddenly, the owl faunus thought she heard the sound of footsteps. Loud, somewhat clumsy footsteps. Eventually, the source of those steps came close to her- a faunus with pale skin, jet black hair, red eyes, ram horns and Greek designed battle armor.

"Ares? What are you doing here?" She leaned her arms against the bars and glared at him. "You ran away during the invasion."

The ram faunus sighed. "I know, and I'm sorry. Once Ash lead the students into battle, I feared that this plan wouldn't work. I fought til the very end, but me and a few other faunus successfully fled right before the authorities arrived."

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "You're the worst. What took you so long?"

"Yes, I know, it took me forever to figure out which cell block you were in. I know that I have a lust for bloodshed, but I couldn't just rush in blindly. I also had to get back your weapons." He had two different weapons on his left side in addition to the sword on his right. "I apologize for making you wait forever."

"Looks like you've taken my advice to heart."

"I have. I owe you. You saved me from going splat when I fell off that cliff in Mistral. And now I'm returning the favor- by getting you out of here." He got the key and unlocked her cell. She stepped out and approached him. "Now turn around and hold still."

She did as he instructed, Ares got out his sword and cut the cables around her wings and she unfurled them, stretching them out.

"Ugh... Ah... Feels good no longer being bound." He handed the owl faunus her weapons- two boomerangs filled with fire dust, and a pistol that converted into a grappling hook. "Thanks. Now to make our escape."

She took one of her boomerangs and threw it against the wall. Since these boomerangs had fire dust in them, the wall exploded, creating a huge hole in the wall and a deafening boom was heard as her boomerang returned to her. An alarm went off as the sounds of footsteps were heard. The guards that were asleep were coming right towards them.

"I think it's high time we get out of here."

"Agreed."

Ares took her hand, getting a smile and blush from the owl faunus before the two ran to the edge and jumped, with the owl faunus taking off into the sky with her wings. The cool night breeze blew gently around them as they made their escape.

Back at the prison, the guards saw the empty cell and the hole in the wall.

The first one looked around frantically. "Where did she go?!"

"Oh man, don't tell me that she escaped!"

"Oh great. The warden is going to kill us."


	31. Dangerous to Know

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys, hope you're enjoying the story. Looks like with the inclusion of this chapter, there may be more than one reason I rated this fanfic M. Towards the middle of the first section, it gets... kinda dark. Don't say I didn't warn ya.

-Also, we're slowly getting closer to having the post volume 3 end. I hope to be done with the post volume three stuff within the next ten chapters, maybe more, maybe less. I'll just see how this works out.

Now then, on with the show!

* * *

Blake turned away from the window showing her a sloshing sea and sat back down on the bed. She rummaged through her bag and grabbed one of her books. She opened it and was about to start reading when suddenly her stomach churned. She had this strange, bad feeling stirring in her gut that came and went, each time getting stronger, but she couldn't tell what it was. Was it just restlessness? She had been active for the last several weeks, trying to find whereabouts to the location of Adam Taurus. Now she had not only his location, but a free one-way ticket to getting revenge. So why did she feel so uneasy? It wasn't seasickness, or any sickness at all, so what was it?

She shut the book and sighed. Believing it to be restlessness, she got out of her room and found herself roaming around below deck. The lower deck was comprised of three levels; the top lower deck, the middle deck, and the bottom, which everyone referred to as the basement. The top lower and middle decks were illuminated by lanterns, some being lit candle flames while others were lit by electric candles. The basement however, was said to have no lighting and no windows, which was why she was told not to go down there. As she roamed the top lower deck, she felt a cold chill creep up not just her spine, but her entire body very slowly.

As she roamed the halls, she mentally asked herself, _What could they have to hide? Or are they even hiding anything?_

The felt the coldness from the stairway. Going against her mind telling her to ignore her instincts, the secret catgirl went down the stairs to the basement. As she got to the basement, she opened a blue door with faded paint and went down a small series of wooden steps to the stores. When she finished descending the staircase, she gasped. Her eyes widened in shock and horror.

"No..."

In the darkness, the first thing she saw with her night vision was two faunus lying on the ground in a pool of blood. The first one had cat ears and was wearing a long dress. She had been stabbed right in the gut and was reaching her right arm out to the faunus beside her, a burly man in a big coat who's faunus trait was not easily seen in the darkness. She carefully stepped forward and examined the other victim, noticing his protractible claws, and he had been impaled in the head.

 _No..._ she thought to herself. _This can't be... Is Corvina really...?_ Her train of thought was soon derailed as she thought she heard the softest sigh. _Wait a second... Do I hear... breathing?_

She looked around and in the upper right corner, saw a man shackled, his back slumped to the wall as his arms were hung up, as if he was a lifeless rag doll. The prisoner was a dark skinned faunus with a dark brown monkey tail. His black hair was messy and his face was covered in bruises and small cuts. He wore ripped jeans exposing his knees and a white buttoned up shirt with floral designs on it.

How long had he been here, comatose and suffering? She started to undo the chains, freeing his right arm, letting it fall beside his leg. She was about to undo the other one when she heard the sounds of loud footsteps against the wooden stairs. Fearing that she would be caught if she didn't take swift action, she quickly hid herself behind a barricade of barrels close to the wall as two guys, one holding a lantern with a big stick, entered the storage unit. She slightly poked her head out from behind the wall of barrels to continue spying on the sailors.

"I thought I heard something." the first one, who was holding the lantern, said to his acquaintance.

The second one frowned. "Doesn't matter. We might as well check on the prisoner while we're here."

The shackled monkey faunus began to wake up. "Ugh... Uh... Oh man..."

"Oh goody, he's alive." the first guy stated sarcastically. "That means we still have to kill him."

"Aw, are you kidding me?" The second guy smirked and snickered as he got out a dagger. "That's part of the fun!"

Blake raised her eyebrows in silent fear as the other one added, "He was supposed to have been dead days ago!"

"Well then, let's remedy this situation."

 _No, no... Please no..._ she silently pleaded.

The unnamed prisoner struggled against the chains, proclaiming, "You'll never get away with this! Never!"

The sailor stabbed him in the chest, embedding the blade in him and repetitively slashing him, causing him to scream in agony. As Blake watched the unfolding event, her eyes reflected red, unable to bear the act of malice. She turned away and shut her eyes, silently shaking in terror and sorrow. Her ears (both cat and human) were bleeding, so she covered up her human ears and put her cat ears down, trying to drown out the sound of his scream, but it was no use. Her head began to ache as well as her heart. Cold chills crawled up her arms and her stomach revolted. How long would she have to endure this? Eventually, after what felt like half an eternity, the screams stopped, replaced by a choking and coughing sound, and then silence. She knew what the silence meant; the poor prisoner who she never even knew was dead. As she uncovered her ears and put her cat ears back up underneath the bow, she sat there, silently shaking and shivering. It took all of Blake's willpower not to gasp, scream or cry as the emotions of fear, anger and sadness flooded through her.

"So, all the faunus on this ship are dead. Three bodies to dispose of." The assassin looked at his coworker. "How are we going to do this?"

"We better ask the captain what to do from here."

 _The captain?!_ Blake bit her tongue. _Corvina Noire... She really is a mass murderer of Faunus!_

"Why can't we just throw them overboard immediately? Eventually, this place will smell like corpses if we don't get them out of here soon enough." he complained.

The guys began to ascend the stairs. "If the visitor finds out the truth about the Noire Armada, she will flip!" the lantern holder said.

"Don't worry, she'll never know the truth." the assassin affirmed.

Once the guys had gone back upstairs, she opened her eyes. Blake came out from her hiding place and gasped as she saw the damage they had done. The monkey was bleeding out all over, several open wounds on his chest, his flesh severed and even a few small pieces on the floor, his shirt torn, blood-stained and ripped to pieces. He looked like a lifeless rag doll when he was chained up and sleeping a few moments ago, and now he was a lifeless rag doll.

"No... no..." A few tears escaped from her eyes that fell onto his corpse. "I'm sorry... I couldn't... save you..."

 _I knew my gut feelings were bad, but I could never have foreseen this to be the truth!_

Her eyes continued to spill tears as she heard footsteps on the wooden steps once again. Retreating back to her hiding place, the men had returned, this time with Corvina Noire present. The trio walked forward, her sailors in tow as the captain inspected the dead monkey faunus.

"Huh? That's strange."

The first one asked, "What's wrong, admiral?"

"One of his chains has been undone." She looked at the other chain, holding up his left arm. "Yet the lad didn't escape his imprisonment, nor his fate."

"Maybe it was his semblance?"

"But if it was his semblance, he would have broken out days ago. Also, I am skeptical that this guy is a huntsman in training. He wielded pepper-spray to try and defend himself as opposed to an actual weapon like me cutlass swords." Corvina elaborated to her underlings. "Either way, he's dead. So now the real focus is getting rid of the evidence."

"That's exactly why we brought you here. What do we do, Captain Noire?" the second one asked.

"So we have three prisoners. Three bodies to dispose of." She pondered to herself for a moment. "We will dispose of them immediately. If Miss Belladonna finds us in the act, we'll tell her the bodies are unfortunate sailors who died."

She watched in shock as Corvina carried the dead prisoner in her arms and the men put the other two bodies on the floor onto a lift up stretcher, carefully taking them up the steps. "Very well then, captain. Let's drag these guys up and prepare them for burial at sea."

As the men dragged them away, Corvina in tow with the poor dead monkey, Blake thought, S _o that's how she murders faunus and gets away with it! No one even knows how horrible she is!_ Suddenly she felt sick to her stomach. It took all her remaining willpower to not throw up. _This is bad beyond belief. If nothing is done, she'll eventually murder all the faunus in the world, my parents, my friends, Sun..._ She clinched her fists. _I have to do something! But what?!_

* * *

Meanwhile, Sun Wukong was continuing the search for Blake. The young monkey faunus was still very much alive, but he was growing more weary by the minute. He not only had bags under his eyes, his eyes drooped and entire face just screamed 'I need a nap.' Not to mention that his arms hung loosely and he yawned at least once or twice a minute.

 _This is crazy... I've only slept nine hours in a timespan of 72 hours. Three days with hardly any sleep. I know I'm losing my mind. Oh wait, I already knew that. But every minute I continue this search, I am reminded of how my rational thought process has shut down. I'm insane. I'm a fool. Should I just go home?_

As he got lost in his thoughts, he stepped on a crack, tripping and falling to the ground. He groaned and right in front of him saw a strange white device of some kind.

"What is this?"

He reached for the device with his right arm. Using the other arm to push himself up, he looked at the device. He skimmed over the buttons before turning to the backside seeing a 'W' in gold colored font. He turned it back to it's front side, looking at the buttons again. It looked kinda like a calculator, but it had a button for every letter in the alphabet and one button for every single digit number. The biggest button was the black one that read in white font, 'On/Off'. It had like a white a dome-shaped screen about two-thirds the size of a standard scroll. The upper right corner had a button that said 'Type'. He pressed the power button and typed the first word that came to his mind.

 _Sun_

The screen turned blue and then said in green letters, _'Sun located'_ and a green arrow pointing directly at him.

 _So this is a GPS device of sorts._ the monkey king thought.

Looking in the lower right corner, he saw a green button with the words 'Scan Pic'. An idea came to his head. He took out the photo of his crush, unfolded it and held it a few feet from the device. As the device scanned the picture, a red projection of light went up and down, taking in the details of the picture. Then it was finished as the screen went from 'Scanning' to...

 _Searching... Blake Belladonna._

 _Go three miles north to the port._

Sun smiled and internally leapt for joy. He had finally found a way to find Blake! But first, he really needed some sleep. He turned off the device and pocketed it for later. If he couldn't take care of himself, how was he to help Blake? Groggily dragging himself through the streets, he went to the nearest model and checked in. As soon as he got into his room, he fell face first onto the bed and was out like a light.

* * *

Blake got out from her hiding place as the stores once again became deserted. She slowly stood up, shaking with fear. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, her head spinning and her mind rapidly thinking a million thoughts at once.

 _This is bad! Bad, bad, BAD! I have to stop her! But what if I can't?! What if she discovers that I'm a faunus? What if she finds out that I was once a member of the White Fang? What if she murders me because of my cat ears?! What if she murders my family?! What if she murders Velvet? Or Mata? Or Neon? Or... what if she murders Sun?! No, no, I risked everything to keep him safe! What if...?!_

 _Calm down!_ she screamed mentally to herself.

She forcefully dragged her hands to her chest and deeply breathed in through her nostrils. She slowly breathed out. After a few slow, deep breaths, she had managed to calm herself down. She continued roaming around the ship, silently musing to herself on what to do.

 _I have to stop her. If I don't stop Corvina from killing more innocent faunus, then I'm no better than the White Fang. But I'm far out at sea. There's no legal authority to report her to. The only way to stop her is to kill her. But if I outright assassinate her, everyone on the ship would know I killed her and I'd have to face everyone on board. Considering there's at least a hundred sailors on board, trying to face them all would not be very easy or desirable. And no one on the ship would dare betray the captain. I need to be sneaky. Hmm..._

As she moved away from the underground dungeon she found a spare bunker with an empty made bed, all illuminated by a blue light lantern in the lower right corner. The room was very small, even smaller than her own temporary living space. She somehow doubted this was the captain's quarters, so why was this here? To the right of the bed was a bunch of wooden cabinets. Curiosity taking over, she opened the cabinets, seeing and found a small plant laying bare in the cabinet.

Wait a second. That wasn't just a plant. It was... belladonna. Her namesake. Then she remembered that belladonna translated to deadly poison. An idea formed in her head. She took the belladonna plant sprigs, closed the other cabinets and left the secret bunker as soon as possible.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Patch, Yang sat at her desk, looking at the two pieces of paper. On her right was Tangerine's letter, on her left, was her response. The former warrior looked down ruefully- her response was nowhere near done.

So far, her response said in somewhat sloppy writing,

 _Dear Tangerine,_

 _You might be wondering why I'm addressing you by your full name as opposed to the nickname 'Tang' that I gave you. Well, in case you didn't know, Beacon has fallen. During the attack, I went up against an unknown_

She didn't know how to phrase her thoughts from that statement. She took the pen and tried to cross out part of the sentence, but it slipped out of her hands and hit the wall before rolling under the desk. She groaned a few seconds before a knock was heard on her door. "Come in."

Her father, Taiyang, slowly opened the door and saw Yang sitting there frustrated. "Hey Yang." He picked up the pen and handed it to her. "It's good to see that you're out of bed."

"Hey dad." She I've been trying to write a letter to my pen pal, but I'm worried that she won't be able to read it. Can you recite what I've got so far?"

"Sure thing." He picked up Yang's unfinished letter. "Let's see... _'Dear Tangerine, You might be pondering why I'm a dressing? you by your dull name as opposed to the nickname 'Tang' that I gave you. Well, sin case you didn't know, Beacon has fallen. During the attack, I went up against an unknown...'_ "

Yang sighed. "I can't send her this. My writing looks like it was done by a five year old!"

"And this is your first draft?"

She sulked. "Third actually."

Taiyang looked down ruefully, saying nothing because he didn't know what to say.

* * *

Blake took the belladonna plant sprigs she found and put it in a small plastic bag in her room. She snuck around the ship, being sure to avoid being seen by anyone, in three consecutive trips, grabbed a mortar and pestle, two wine glasses, a small bowl, two bottles of wine, one normal sized and one mini bottle, a wooden spoon, some corks and a corkscrew before returning to her room once again. She set the last three supplies down on the bed quickly before shutting the door. She looked at the bed to be sure she had everything she needed, breathed a sigh of relief and got to work, first by setting all the supplies on a desk. Then she took out the bag of belladonna and some disposable plastic gloves from her backpack.

As she put the gloves on, she thought to herself, _I know from that book on poisonous plants that the most poisonous part of the plant is the leaves and berries. But it also there's varying amounts of poison in all parts. The more I can use, the better._

She took the sprigs out of the bag and separated the berries from the rest of the plant by placing them in the smaller bowl. She then proceeded to take the leaves and flowers and put them into the mortar. Taking the pestle, she crushed the flowers and leaves together until they were all broken up into small, tiny pieces, all the while focusing her rage on Corvina. As she stopped grinding the components together, she breathed in heavily, looking at her hands and how they slightly strained from the effort she had put into crushing the plant. Her eyes widened as she stood there, her palms sweating.

 _Should I even be doing this?_ a voice in her head asked her. She stopped what she was doing. _This is murder. This is mutiny. And she is helping me find Adam..._

 _No!_ the darker side of her screamed. _She murdered those innocent faunus! If you don't stop her, she could come after your parents, your friends and neighbors, and even your crush, Sun Wukong!_

Sun... She felt her heart grieve and break a little. Who knew her heart could break so much and still be intact? But by now, he was long gone. Back at Haven. She would never see him again. Her sorrow then turned back to anger as she thought of Corvina Noire again.

 _Corvina may be helping you find the despicable Adam Taurus, but that does not excuse her from her crimes!_

The black bowed beauty believed could justify herself and her actions, so she continued making the toxic concoction. She then took the berries and ground them until they were a thin, dark blue, blackish colored juice. As she picked up the remaining stalks and the root attached to it, she was wondering how she was supposed to use it, if at all. She wouldn't be able to break it into smaller pieces like the leaves and flowers, and there was no way she could add it into the mini bottle of wine without it being noticed. She had to be sure she would die from the poison; she only had one shot! Thinking that there would be a way to get the toxins, she took the leaf and flower mixture and put it into the crushed berry juice and then proceeded to break the root and stem apart, seeing if she could get any liquid. And she did. Not much, but enough to fill the bottom layer of the bowl.

She added it to the mortar and stirred it up with a wooden spoon. She set the brew aside and reached for one of the wine bottles. Using the corkscrew she swiped earlier, she opened the mini bottle and began to drink straight from it. It tasted better than she thought it was going to be, but she didn't do it for the taste; she needed the space for the poison. Once she drank most of the wine, she added the poison to the bottle, put a cork on it and shook it to evenly mix the poison with the remaining wine.

The stray cat woman then took out a black marker from her backpack and labeled the mini bottle with the initials C.N. After cleaning up, she removed her gloves and disposed them along with the remaining parts of the plant. She put away the glasses and wine bottles for later use.

 _Now all I have to do is wait for the right moment._


	32. Breakaway

A knock was heard on Blake's door. She answered, "Come in."

The door opened, revealing Xanthe on the other side. "Ahoy, Miss Belladonna. The captain and her crew are about to have supper and since you're a guest, she invited you to join us at her table."

"Oh, why thank you. Let's not keep her waiting then."

He went to his left and walked down the hallway with Blake in tow, the latter composing her thoughts as she secretly smirked to herself. _Little does he know what I've been up to. Now I just have to keep up this act until we get closer to the shores of Vale._

As she went down the hallway, her smirk was replaced with her poker face. The two went to the mess hall- a big room below the decks that consisted of four long rectangular tables lined up vertically about ten feet apart, all of them currently unoccupied. There was one table in the very back, slightly smaller and titled horizontally instead of vertically. Blake walked forward, slowing herself down to take in the details. There were 14 chairs at the table, two of them unoccupied. All the plates were bare and there were two different glasses. The long glasses had water and the short glasses were filled with some sort of brown liquid, probably rum.

On the right side of the table, Corvina sat at the head, as she was the captain. The assassin and the lantern holder that Blake saw earlier were present there as well. To Corvina's left sat a woman with grass green eyes, sea green hair and a green and black pirate outfit, while to her right was an unoccupied seat. Further down on the captain's left, Xanthe took his seat as the captain addressed the raven haired lass.

"Ah, Miss Belladonna. So glad you could join us."

Blake tried to smile as she took her seat next to the captain. "Well thank you for inviting me. I'm honored."

"As you should be. This table is reserved for those who are part of my inner circle."

"I am not even a member of this faction. I feel like an outsider." she honestly admitted, trying to be modest.

"Well, if ye succeed in blowing Adam down, you could join us."

She hesitated for a moment. "Uh... I... I'll... I'll think about it."

 _Alright, she seems to buy it._ Blake thought to herself. _That was close._

The black bowed lass noticed the behavior of the people around her- the assassin keeping his hands on the table, the lantern holder taking a sip of water, no one touching the rum glasses- and tried to imitate their behavior. Blake took a sip of water and looked at the woman across from her. Her hair was styled into a fishtail braid, held together by a forest green hair bow. "Nice braid."

The woman smiled. "Thank you. I do it all by myself."

"And who do I have the honor of meeting?" Blake asked, trying to make conversation and not be awkward.

Corvina introduced the woman. "This is Ivy, my right hand."

"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Belladonna."

"Same to you."

Corvina lifted up her glass of rum. "Lads and lasses, I propose a toast." Everyone raised their glass and Blake followed suit. "A toast to Blake Belladonna, for bravely going after Adam Taurus and leading a one-woman crusade against the White Fang!"

"To Blake Belladonna!" the other inner circle members chanted in unison.

They all clinked glasses and began to drink, save for Blake, who gently set her glass down without anyone noticing. The black-bowed beauty smiled and her face turned a little red in embarrassment. "You are too kind, preaching in my name."

"How can I not be? Ye have done no wrong to me." Corvina took another drink before she set her glass down. "Also, Adam is the worst."

Blake chuckled and answered back, "I agree with you wholeheartedly."

* * *

"Achoo!" The sound of his sneeze went unheard since the room was empty, save for him, standing there alone. "A...choo!" Adam Taurus put his handkerchief to his nose and blew into it. "Gosh damn it. How did I get sick?"

 _No matter. I must carry on, and figure out how to capture that traitor while I prepare for my journey to Mistral. Oh, it's turning into a jungle there..._

He searched through his scroll and looked at the private database. Many of his best soldiers had been taken to be reassigned in Mistral. He sneezed again before groaning as he was reminded of Sienna's punishment.

 _Focus on your objective. Potential revenge later. Hmm. Knowing Blake's tendency to run, she probably fled back home to Menagerie. Who do I know in Menagerie that I can ask to bring her to me?_

He went through his memory of who used to be, or still was, in Menagerie. Dave Wycliffe moved on from being a technician to being a fighter, and had become lieutenant in Vale's branch. Last he heard, he was on his way to a meeting in Olympia sometime before the CCT tower went down. The Albain brothers, Fennec and Corsac, were members who were present there, and so was Ilia Amitola.

 _Ilia was devastated when Blake left, almost as much as I was. We both cried, but she doesn't know that... That I was sobbing on in the inside, and away from the eyes of others.  
_

"Achoo!"

His mind turned back to Blake again.

 _It is very much possible that she could be there. I will have to speak with the Albain brothers to see if this holds true._

The bull horned faunus got out a pen, a piece of paper, took the materials to his desk and began to write.

 _Dear Fennec and Corsac,_

"Achoo!"

 _The attack on Beacon was a success. The school has fallen to the ground, and from what I can tell, Ozpin died during the attack._ _I am writing out to you to seek out your aid._ _It seems that traitor known as Blake Belladonna may have been a student at Beacon Academy during the time she had left the White Fang and before the huntsman academy fell to the ground. I do not know what has become of her since the fall of Vale's huntsman school, but it seems that she has abandoned her teammates and I suspect that she may have fled back home to Menagerie. Can you search Kuo Kuana_ _to make sure my suspicions are correct?_

"Achoo!"

 _If so, inform me of her status and of her known intentions._ _If necessary, you may have to speak with the Belladonnas to uncover Blake's whereabouts. Hopefully, this won't be necessary to find the answers I desire. Do be sure that they don't become suspicious of what the White Fang has been up to in Vale._ _And do be sure that Diane does not find out about this, otherwise she will report this to Sienna. She's already angry with me, and..._

"Achoo!"

 _I do not need more reason for her to detest and scold me._

"Achoo!"

 _Now, you might be wondering why High Leader Khan is so angry with me._

He blew his nose into his handkerchief before resuming his writing.

 _To put it simply, she does not share my point of view on the success of the attack on Beacon Academy. She has also taken one-third of my troops and resigned them to Mistral. The Mistralian White Fang branch is a huge mess at the present moment. You may not be aware of this, it seems that a civil war is brewing between two White Fang groups in Mistral as a result of the False Signal Incident. While it is not good in the overall scheme of things, I may be able to use this to my advantage, but I will have to move swiftly if I decide to take action._

"Achoo!"

 _If this happens, I may not get your response as quickly as I would like, but with the CCT down, I will have to be patient. It is a good thing that all White Fang messengers have combat training, unlike most of the 2nd class messengers who don't know what they're doing. Nonetheless, report your findings to me and_ _I wish you the best of luck with affairs in Menagerie._

 _Sincerely, Adam Taurus_

After the messenger left, he remembered his last encounter with Blake- which involved him swinging his sword at her and attempting to behead her, only to realize it was her shadow. He looked at her ruefully while he did this, and as she got away, carrying her ailing friend, he made no attempt to go after her. He could have chased after her, pursued her and attempted to kill her while she was vulnerable after easily defeating the Grimm. Why didn't he? Something was there, something stopped him.

But what was it?

* * *

Meanwhile, Sun was following the directions the device gave him. He walked through a city, past buildings, through cobblestone paved roads and buildings. As a biker passed him by, he looked at the device.

 _Go 3.4 miles (2.9 nautical miles) east.  
_

"Nautical miles? Why would..." He felt his foot partially off the ground, held the device away from him in his left hand, stopping himself from falling into the ocean. "Oh..."

 _She's at sea? What would she be doing at sea? Is she heading back to the mainland?_ The monkey king tried to think of a way to find her from here. _I can't try rowing a raft again. I've been there and know how well that ends..._

He looked around and saw a helicopter and an old man he presumed was the pilot kneeling on the ground looking at the underside of the rotorcraft. He gently approached him. "Hey, I hate to disturb you, but I need your help. I need you to take me somewhere."

The man looked at him, slightly annoyed and very frustrated. "I'd love to help, but I can't. My helicopter is completely broken. The propeller blade is busted and the engine won't start."

"Oh... Sorry for disturbing you. I guess I'll leave you be."

Sun was about to walk away when the mechanic said, "Hmm... Tell ya what. You help me fix this helicopter, and I'll take you where you want to go, free of charge."

"Deal. Where do I start?"

* * *

Back at the Arc family home, Pyrrha Nikos and all of the Arc family members, save for Tangerine and Emerald, were in the kitchen, preparing a surprise birthday party for Emerald. Many of them were working on decorations while others were wrapping their presents for the birthday girl.

"Are you sure this plan is going to work?" Azure asked, looking up from her scroll.

"Completely." Amethyst answered enthusiastically. "Tangerine went through Jaune's training session first, and now she's taking Emerald out for to apply her hand to hand combat experience with low level thugs. The bookworm has no idea what we're even doing."

Azura put a white string a green balloon and added it to the bunch of balloons. "I don't know. Emerald is hard to surprise."

Rouge tied the red ribbon around a square box with crimson wrapping paper. "She probably already knows what this is about."

"Still, you can't really blame us for trying." Jaune sheepishly smiled.

A timer went off and Roux got the cake out of the oven- a two tiered chocolate fudge cake- and set on a heatproof cloth to let it cool.

As Roux began to frost the cake with chocolate frosting, Rouge looked at her younger brother with a look of curiosity and sadness before calming herself to not appear too upset. "Jaune?"

He looked the femme fatale, annoyed. "What is it?"

"After the duel, you mentioned several reasons for fighting. What are those reasons?"

"There's several reasons I fight- for myself, for Pyrrha, for my friends, and for those that can't defend themselves. I know that I'm no hero, and I'm not the brightest bulb in the socket, but I do believe that my presence at Beacon changed things for the better. Assuming nothing else changed, if I didn't make that call to Weiss, no one would have known where Pyrrha was, and Cinder would have annihilated her. The Grimm dragon would have caused even more destruction since it wasn't immobilized, somehow..., there would be a lot more injures and deaths, and Cinder would have brought the entire city to its knees. I know it wasn't the most heroic action, but... I would like to believe that it was a good thing I forged transcripts to Beacon instead of it just being an immoral act."

"Aw, Jaune, you don't give yourself enough credit." Pyrrha smiled at him. "You fought against the hijacked Atlas drones, White Fang members and the Grimm alongside your fellow students. After we were separated, you fought off an entire horde of Grimm. And even with Beacon's downfall, you continue working towards your goals, endlessly striving to become better. You've come further than anyone would ever have expected. Your time will come. Someday, you will know you're a hero beyond a shadow of a doubt. "

As Roux put sixteen green candles on the top of the cake, Jaune asked, "But when will that day come?"

Before anyone could give an answer, a vibration sound was heard coming from Azure's scroll. She looked at message on her scroll. "They're coming. They're very close and will be here in about two minutes!"

"Quickly, cut the lights!" Roux ordered.

Pyrrha turned off the lights, shrouding the room in darkness.

* * *

Meanwhile, Emerald and Tangerine were walking up the mountain. Once they had finished climbing the steep slope, they stood about fifty feet from their home.

"Thanks again for the experience." Emerald said.

"You're welcome. How did it feel to successfully defeat the thieves?" Tangerine asked.

"It felt good. At least I know that I can apply my skills in case I encounter them."

The two entered the house. "Let me get you some water. You must be thirsty after a long day."

"Sure, thank you." Emerald entered the kitchen with Tangerine but then she stopped. "Wait a minute, why is it dark in here?"

"Happy birthday, Emerald!" everyone else exclaimed.

"Ah... ah..." She choked on air before she smiled, almost laughing and crying. "I can't believe this. You guys never host surprise birthday parties for anyone."

"We know, but... this may the last birthday you'll get to celebrate..." Acacia said. Rouge gave her a glare before quickly adding, "for a long time... We wanted to make it extra special."

"So we pitched in to make this best birthday ever." Jaune added. "With gifts, a bigger cake, and everything."

"This one's from all of us." Azure said, handing her a small scroll of parchment.

The bookworm unrolled the parchment scroll and examined it. "A map of the entire world with every known city, village and settlement. Thanks guys, this will be most useful!"

She set the map down. "I got you something." Azura said, getting out from behind her back a thin blue square shaped gift with a dark blue ribbon.

"You're too kind. You know you don't have to do that as long you pitch in towards the family gift."

"I know, but, considering that tomorrow you'll be leaving on a long and dangerous journey, we figured we should get something that will help you on your journey. Several of us had that same idea." Emerald took the gift from the truth teller. "This one's from me and Indigo."

She tore through the wrapping paper and examined the gift given to her. "Hmm.." She held the book and read the title in her head. _Aura101- The basics of aura and advanced techniques of aura and its uses_ "A book about aura? I think I can see why you're giving me this."

"Yeah. You already have your semblance unlocked, but hopefully you can read it and use the knowledge you acquire to defend yourself."

"I'll find a way to read it. Thank you."

"I hope this helps you on your mission." Amethyst said, handing her a small box wrapped in purple wrapping paper with dark purple polka dots.

She took the box and opened it, smiling at the contents inside. "A compass. Perfect! That's actually one of the few items I don't have that I would need for my journey. Thank you!"

"You're welcome!"

Acacia had one hand behind her back. "I got you something, although you might already have one."

She put her right hand forward, showing that she didn't bother to wrap up the first aid kit she got her. "A first aid kit? I do have one, but it can't hurt to save a spare. Thanks."

The singer smiled. "No problem. I didn't have time to gift wrap it however."

She beamed a bright smile before widening her eyes and giving Acacia a questioning look. "It's alright. I'm happy you got me this, although... I thought you were broke since you were basically giving all of your paycheck to mom and dad to help pay off the debt."

"Well... There's something I've kinda been keeping under the rug for a few weeks from most of the family." Jaune smiled knowingly as Acacia spoke. "Jaune already knows this, but... secretly... I've been taking up side gigs as a singer, doing weddings, small private concerts, wedding receptions and other events for a bit. I've been trying very hard to not let this conflict with my responsibilities as a chef, although I won't lie, there was one instance where I was contacted last minute during my lunch break for a performance that same evening, and I faked being sick to get off early so I could learn the music. "

"Aw, sweetie. We're not mad at you. We just wish you had told us so that we could support you." Azure nodded reassuringly.

"I just wanted to follow my dreams, and stop daydreaming."

"It's alright." Emerald said. "And I don't hear anyone complaining or criticizing you."

The singer grinned ear to ear. "Thanks. You're the best."

"I would say that I got you a gift, but you can consider the few self-defense training sessions we've had as my gift to you. Use the knowledge you've learned when you're in trouble." Tangerine instructed.

Emerald respectfully bowed to her older sister. "Thank you."

The tough tomboy sighed, lamenting. "I just wish I had more time to train you. You only have one more training session before you take off tomorrow."

"That is true."

"I know you have no clue how to fight, and I'm not trying to get you to quickly master something so hard in a short amount of time, but hopefully, this will help."

"And I am grateful that you agreed to teach me, even with you fighting criminals and taking Jaune under your wing." She smiled. "Have you ever thought of being a combat teacher for a living?"

Tangerine shrugged. "I never have, but who knows? Maybe that's something else I'll do when I become a huntress."

"I know you're about to do a dangerous quest, so I got you this." Rouge held a box in her hands before Emerald took it into her hands. "I think you'll like it."

The sixteen year old brainiac looked inside the box and then looked at Rouge like she had grown two heads. "A watch? How is this going to help me?"

"Weren't you the one who said never judge a book by it's cover?" The bookworm nodded. "There's more that meets the eye. Press the green button on the side."

She did so, and she was encased in a green protective sphere. "Wow! Cool!" She pressed the button again, turning it off.

"It runs on a very rare form of dust. I had to call in some favors from my teammate Urdina Morris in order to have this created, and the dust was quite expensive to get, but you are worth it. Use this in dire times to defend yourself. However, bear in mind that eventually the dust will run out, so use it wisely."

"Thanks Rouge. Thanks to all of you. I'm taking these gifts up to my room, and then we'll commence with cake cutting."

Emerald took the gifts to her room, placing them all on her desk in a neat organized pile. She looked around at the forest green walls of her room, her perfectly made bed to her left, to her right, the heavily overstuffed bookshelves, the violin, oboe, and French horn, all in their respective cases lined against the wall along with a raised music stand and a small piano in the upper left corner nearby the closet door. Next to the first bookshelf was a picture of Emerald and her family, taken shortly before Jaune's departure. Many of the Arc family members were smiling or had a neutral expression, except for Rouge, who was frowning with her arms folded.

This is what she was soon to leave behind. Was she really ready for this? She had her doubts, but even then, they would disappear with her emotions. She knew this and she was not going to let this temporary fear get to her. She turned away, exited her room and went back downstairs. As she entered the kitchen, she rhetorically asked, "Now then, where were we?"

"Cake cutting, perhaps?" Indigo inquired.

"Chocolate upon chocolate. Your favorite." Azura stated.

"I know sweets are generally bad for you, but too much of anything is really bad. Also, chocolate is probably my one weakness there." the birthday girl admitted.

Roux struck a match and lit the sixteen candles. He then blew out the match and motioned for everyone to sing. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Emerald! Happy birthday to you!"

"And many more!" Acacia sang thereafter.

After a brief moment, she blew out the candles and everyone cheered and clapped for her. One by one, everyone got their piece of cake, with Emerald being first, and sat around the table, enjoying the joyous day.

"Om... This is really good!" Emerald exclaimed.

"Thank you." Azure said. "I made it entirely from scratch, which is something I haven't even done in years. Even the frosting was homemade."

"You're welcome."

"It takes teamwork to make something like this work." Acacia said.

"I agree. Without teamwork, this wouldn't have been possible." Roux added.

 _What if I've been thinking about this wrong?_ Pyrrha thought to herself. _What if the key to stopping Cinder isn't pushing everyone away, but letting them fight alongside me?_

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"Did you say something? I got lost in thought." she answered.

"What was it that you were thinking of?"

"Oh nothing important."

 _What a huge lie._ the gladiator girl thought.

Azura glared at her briefly but then shrugged it off and continued eating cake with everyone else.

* * *

The next day, it was time for Emerald to leave. She looked through her convertible wheeled backpack one last time to be sure she had everything she needed. First, she looked at her clothes. All her clothes were in compression sacs, labeled as follows; pants, shorts, shirts, socks, underwear and bras, winter gear, and other. They were all there and all clothes were properly sorted.

Next, she looked at her survival gear- a one month food supply, some MREs, two bottles of fresh drinking water, a tent that folded up neatly into a little square cube, a collapsible sleeping bag and pillow set, the first aid kits, reusable utensils, some cookware, a can opener and water filter.

Then she looked at her toiletries and other essentials- a comb, a hairbrush, toothbrush, three travel size containers of toothpaste, a few containers of shampoo/conditioner, bodywash, sunscreen, and a rain poncho. She then remembered her book on aura. Then she put it along with the map into a side compartment of the backpack.

Finally she checked her pockets- her scroll (just in case she needed it or the CCT came back online), ID, compass, a pack of matches, a notepad, a few pens, spare hairbows and rubber bands. Heading to her desk, she put the dust powered protective watch on her right wrist after making sure it was tightened properly. As she threw her backpack on, she looked at the family photo one last time.

 _Time to kiss the past goodbye and face the future._ the bookworm thought to herself.

Once she had her gear packed up, she went down the stairs and exited the house, finding her family members and Pyrrha Nikos there to send her off.

"Well, it seems that it is time for me to go." She hugged her parents in a group hug. "Goodbye mom. Goodbye dad. I'd like to say that I'll miss you, but once my emotions are locked away, I won't feel them."

"Love ya sweetie. Please, return to us safely." Roux stated.

"We love you! Please be careful!" Azure added.

Emerald turned to her siblings. "Goodbye my sisters and brother."

"Good luck, big sis!" Amethyst cheered before tightly hugging her.

As she released her, Emerald turned to Indigo. "I would give you the same advice I gave to Jaune, but I'm not sure it would help." Indigo hugged her. "Love ya sis. Just be careful."

She stepped back and Azura hugged her. "Honestly, this idea is slightly crazy yet seemingly brilliant at the same time. Good luck, big sister!"

"If all goes well, you'll be very rich. Love you, Em. Be careful! Don't fight a fight you can't win!" Jaune advised.

"Noted." The bookworm turned to Acacia. "Goodbye Acacia. Good luck in your rise to singing."

"Thank you, and good luck to you as well!"

Tangerine spoke to her, "Farewell, Em. Remember all that I have taught you and you should survive."

"Au revoir et bonne chance, Emerald." She put her hands up as if in prayer for a moment. "Please return to us safely."

The soon to be messenger turned to the one person she had yet to address. "Farewell to thee, Pyrrha Nikos."

Pyrrha smiled. "Good luck, Emerald. I hope that you are successful in all your endeavors."

She smiled brightly before stepping back from everyone as she activated her semblance, letting the green energy of her aura wash over her, locking up her emotions. With a calm emotionless expression, Emerald Arc turned on her heel and walked away without saying another word.

"I almost can't believe it." Roux sniffed. "One day, she's playing an instrument or reading a book for knowledge or pleasure, and now, she's grown up and taking on a risky job."

"I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we already miss her." Azure stated.

"Sometimes... you have to leave for change." Jaune said.

 _I haven't even asked him yet._ Pyrrha thought to herself. _But would he even want to do it?  
_


	33. When the Truth Comes Out

A train going through the countryside of Mistral passed by through the mountains. A dark skinned woman in a long black cloak, wearing a big bowler hat to cover her up her faunus ears along with black masquerade mask to cover her face sat on the right side of the train, a newspaper in her hands. As the incognito Sienna Khan held the latest issue of _Nina News_ in her hands, she looked at the headline.

 **Athena Escapes from Argus Harbor Max Security Prison**

 _November 20th, 79 AGW_

 _Written by Violet Scarlatina_

Underneath the headline was a picture of an empty prison cell and a hole in the wall.

 _Oh great..._ Sienna sarcastically thought to herself.

The leader of the White Fang then proceeded to read the article itself.

 _On November 17th, at 11:35pm, Argus Harbor Max Security Prison has had a criminal escape for the first time in over fifty years. The criminal in question, an owl winged faunus named Athena Bruna, is the same person responsible for the attack on Sanctum Academy. Very little information is known about her, but it is known that she is 22 years old, is believed by her followers to be a very wise military leader and is said to be claustrophobic._

 _The cameras were taken out and destroyed at the prison, preventing us from knowing who or what caused Athena to escape. However, they were able to get some auditory evidence from voice recorders. The auditory evidence is currently being investigated by the authorities, but from they've gathered and released so far, the suspect seems to go by the name of Ares.  
_

Sienna paused after she read that line. Ares. She knew a faunus named Ares. Ares Adamos. But that raised the question; why would he be in cohorts with Athena? She shrugged and read on.

 _Argus Harbor Max Security Prison is where all of the faunus that were apprehended were taken after the attack on Sanctum. It is a bit curious as to why someone would break out Athena but not her followers._ _From what were able to gather, not only did the aide help to break Athena out of prison, they also retrieved her weapons, the same ones that were used in the Battle for Sanctum Academy._

 _Argus Harbor Max Security Prison is notorious for the prison break that occurred fifty years ago, when several bandits who were reportedly part of the Branwen Tribe escaped and destroyed the upper half of the prison during their prison breakout. Since then, major changes in security and surveillance have been put in place to prevent such recurrences from happening. Unfortunately, despite these upgrades in technology and strict rules for the guards to follow, the unknown aid broke into prison and broke out the malevolent owl winged faunus. The warden could not be reached for comment, but rumor has it that the guards that were supposed to be keeping an eye on her were far away from her cell and_ _(continued on page 2A)_

She skipped ahead to the next page to continue reading.

 _sleeping_ _on the job._

 _During the attack on Sanctum Academy, Athena lead over six hundred faunus, a majority of them part of the White Fang, and stormed the grounds of the primary combat school._ _When the wall came crumbling down and the moat was frozen, everyone thought that the school would perish. But from high above were the wall used to be, a young 15 year old boy named Ash Nikos noticed the army invading. He ordered his friends, who were with him as the wall crumbled, to get the teachers and call for help before he jumped down over 300 feet and fought the army with nothing but his weapon and his wits. He was heavily outnumbered and outmatched, but he pressed on anyway. As he avoided dust-filled boomerangs, multiple gunshots and several other flying projectiles while fighting the rogue faunus, he was slowly being outmatched and was nearly killed until one of the teachers saved him. The staff ordered Ash to leave the scene and barricade the inside of the school, but he refused to back down. When Headmaster_ _Aurelio was swiftly defeated, he started giving commands to prevent the army from getting inside the school and hurting the students.  
_

 _Brick Bond, one of the many teachers who helped to defend Sanctum Academy during the attack, gives us a view into the situation at hand and how he felt about the young man taking a leading role in defending the primary combat school.  
_

 _"That boy is absolutely crazy." Mr. Bond said about him in an interview after the attack. "Yet I didn't have time to argue with him, we had a school to defend. In war, you really have to throw your other concerns aside and focus on stopping the enemy."_

 _At first, it seemed as though the plan was working, but the tide began to turn when Athena, who had been wearing a cape to conceal to her wings, suddenly discarded it after defeating Ash in battle. Upon seeing her wings, the young Mistral Tournament Champion and his aides gasped in shock. Using their hesitance to her advantage, Athena flew into the air and used her boomerangs to attack the school, further destroying it.  
_

 _With no way to reach her in the air and the army of teachers slowly being weakened due to being outnumbered, Sanctum itself was beginning to crumble. It is said that while in the air, Athena taunted the champion by asking him, "Do you really think you can stop an army?!_ _You're just one kid!_ _"_

 _All seemed lost for Ash and the defenders of Sanctum. Then at that moment, Ash's friends had gathered the students and fought against the group of rogue faunus. Rufus, one of Ash's known friends, had gathered hundreds of students to fight and defend the school and led them into combat.  
_

 _"We're not going to do nothing and let our school crumble to pieces." said Rufus. "This is our home. And anyone who tries to threaten or destroy it is going down!"  
_

 _After being dragged to the earth by Rufus's whip, Ash and his three closest friends proceeded to fight Athena and won._ _After Athena's defeat, some of the few faunus that had been been defeated fled the scene._ _From there, the army was slowly dwindled and eventually surrendered. Shortly thereafter,_ _the authorities arrived and took away the rogue faunus._ _Over six hundred arrests were made, two hundred deaths in Athena's army, at least twenty deaths in Sanctum, four of them being students and over five hundred combatants were injured, a dozen in critical condition._ _As a result of the attack, Headmaster Aurelio was left in a coma with lasting injures. With Aurelio in a coma and the school partially destroyed, they sent the students back home._

The high leader of the White Fang looked at the picture of Athena with her wings bound in black cables, along with police officers ready to take her away. One of the officers held her weapons- her boomerangs and pistol/grappling hook. Ash Nikos and Brick Bond were in the photo as well, glaring at the defeated faunus. An unconscious Aurelio was in the photo as well.

 _As Athena was being dragged away by the authorities, she shouted, 'No! Maura Celandine won't like this!' This raised the question, who is Maura Celandine? Celandine is the leader of the Mistralian White Fang, and in spite of Athena mentioning her as the reason she and her group attacked Sanctum, she denies her involvement in the attack._ _125,000 Lien will be given to anyone able to apprehend Maura and bring her justice. The bounty for Athena currently stands at 50,000 Lien. So that raises the question- where are the two malevolent leading faunus now? And when will they strike next?_

The train was slowly coming to a halt.

 _Athena... What are you plotting?_ Sienna mentally asked herself.

The train stopped. The conductor announced. "Zephyros! Everyone for Zephyros!"

Sienna got up, taking the newspaper with her, and exited the train. Since she was the only one getting off here, the train then took off as she folded and pocketed the newspaper. Upon exiting the train, the high leader saw a circular fountain on the ground that didn't have any water running or gushing from the green stone floor. The open air train station was a ghost town, which both relieved her and unsettled her.

"Where is everyone?" she asked aloud to the empty air.

The tiger faunus walked on, going from the train station to seeing the center of the city. A sign on her left read, _Blossom Plaza_ and the leader examined her surroundings. To her left and right were small houses, each coated in bright varying colors such as red, pink, orange and even a few in yellow. In the background was a small mountain while the center of the plaza had a lush bed of grass with a huge cherry blossom tree, its petals scattering in the wind.

 _Oh right, this is Zephyros, the city of flowers. During the spring and summer, it's packed with tourists and visitors from all over the world. But during the fall and winter, it is deserted save for those who live here._

According to what she had been told by a White Fang messenger, Maura had retreated to Kunchinashi, and the small city of Zephyros was the closest city accessible by train. From here, it was walking northwest to find the leader of the Mistral's White Fang.

 _I hope Maura's alright.  
_

* * *

Blake stood at the main deck of the Noire Armada ship. She looked at the sail of the ship, seeing a black emblem of twin cutlass swords in an 'x' shape with four mini skulls around the x.

 _Is that Corvina's emblem?_ she thought to herself. _Or the Noire Armada? Or perhaps both? Why would she...?_

"Beautiful sight, isn't it?" a voice asked disrupting her thoughts.

She smiled at the captain before giving a chuckle. "I'm surprised you're not sick of being at sea."

"I will admit that sometimes it gets tiring, but hopefully, one day, we won't be forced to be at sea all the time."

"You think so?"

"Yeah." She smiled, no smirked, as she turned to look at the sea. "I do."

 _I've gained her trust._ the secret catgirl thought. _From what I've learned, we should be close to shore by now... The time is nigh to enact my plan._

The captain turned back to Blake. "We should be reaching mainland Vale soon."

"Excellent." She paused for a moment to transition the subject. "You know, during my travels, I procured a bottle of rare wine, but I haven't had the time or anyone else to enjoy it with. Would care to join me in one last toast before I face Adam Taurus?"

"Certainly." the admiral answered. "What better way to send you off?"

Blake left the main deck to fetch the wine.

 _Here goes nothing._

She made her way to her quarters, slipping into the shadows.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sun was flying in the helicopter that he helped the pilot to fix. The two flew several miles above the sea.

"Thanks again for doing this." Sun smiled nervously to the pilot. "I owe you big time."

"I should be thanking you. Without you, I'd be out of business." the pilot said smiling and chuckling. "Now, where's that fancy gadget taking us?"

"Another two miles southwest."

"Righto." The pilot turned the rotorcraft to fly in the desired direction. The two flew in awkward silence, Sun staring at the sea as the pilot looked at the sky. "So if you don't mind me asking, why are you doing this?"

"Well... I'm trying to find my friend..."

"Your friend?"

"Yeah... I'm actually in love with her."

He gave the monkey faunus a smug look. "So your girlfriend ran off, did she?"

His face blushed a bit in embarrassment. "Not quite. Er, she's not my girlfriend. Not yet anyway. Even then, I don't know how she'll react to my sudden appearance."

"Relationships aren't easy, are they? Heh heh. I remember a while ago flying a red haired girl to Mistral and her boyfriend was sending her off."

"That's really depressing."

"They were both upset, but the guy seemed to be more devastated."

"I hope they find each other again."

"Who knows? Maybe they already have."

The device beeped in Sun's hands. "We're getting close." The device beeped slowly, in a steady rhythm. "Warmer... warmer..." Then the device started beeping faster, before beeping like crazy. "Red hot! Right there! Says she's right down there." He pointed to a ship down below him.

The pilot widened his eyes in realization. "Do you have a landing strategy? I just realized I'm fresh out of parachutes."

He turned off and pocketed the device, answering, "Yeah I got one. You have any binoculars? I think I see her down below."

The pilot handed a pair over to the monkey faunus. Sun opened the door, stood up and then he looked at the deck below with the binoculars.

 _Looks like Blake's here, but what is she...?_ Then Sun looked a bit closer and saw the pirate hat on her head. He gasped in realization. _Corvina? Oh no... Don't tell me... Blake's a prisoner?! Or worse, dead?!_

"Is something wrong?" the old pilot asked.

"Blake's here, but she's not the one standing on the deck. That woman down there is a faunus murderer... what if she was captured, or worse, murdered?!"

"Well, there's one way to find out." he grimly answered.

Sun looked down below the deck. His heart pounded. Should he jump? Should he wait? What was happening? And where was Blake?

In her quarters, Blake took the wine glasses she grabbed earlier, the normal bottle, and the mini battle with Corvina's initials and poured the glasses of wine, one that was normal, one belladonna-laced. Taking the poisoned one in her left hand and the normal in her right, she left her room and roamed the hallway, trying to hide the feeling of nervousness. Her heart threatened to pound out of her chest. She breathed deeply, trying to silence her fears, but she knew what was on the line.

This was it. If the plan worked, Corvina would be poisoned and die instantly. If it failed, there would be hell to pay.

* * *

"So what are you gonna do?"

He handed the binoculars back to the pilot and got out his staff. "I'm going down there."

Without further hesitation, Sun jumped down from the helicopter, twirling his staff to slow his descent. The helicopter then flew away as Sun landed on the mainmast. As he did this, Blake came out from the door, holding the glasses in her hand. As the monkey king stood from the crow's nest, he tried to figure out what was happening.

 _Wait, she's alive? But... how? What's going on?_ He rapidly thought before he saw the glasses in her hand. _Is this subservience?_

Down below, the raven-haired black bowed beauty handed the left glass to the raven-haired murderess. "I propose a toast; to the eventual downfall of Adam Taurus."

Corvina smiled in response. "May he die a slow and painful death."

The two clinked their glasses. Blake began to drink as Captain Noire slowly lifted the glass to her lips.

"Leave her alone, Corvina!"

Suddenly, Sun was standing adjacent to Blake, his weapon in hand, after having dropped down from the nest. Blake choked on the wine, coughing briefly. She shot him a brief glare. "Sun?!"

The captain looked at the faunus before turning back to her lookalike. "You know him?"

Blake ignored her question and proceeded to glare at the monkey faunus. "What are you doing here?!"

"Blake, I came to help you stop the White Fang." Corvina folded her arms angrily and he began to stutter. "But when I saw you aboard the ship, I thought you were a prisoner aboard her ship! Or... or forced into subservience or something!"

"A prisoner?! Are you an idiot?! That's not the case at all! She's been helping me to get to Adam Taurus!" With her free hand, she angrily pointed her index finger at him. "And you? You've just followed me this entire time?!"

Sun's words began to fail him. "No, well yes, not the entire time, I mean... ugh..."

"You're a fool, Sun! A complete, utter fool!"

Sun gasped. The air was ripped right out of his lungs. He felt like he couldn't breathe. It was as though his heart just shattered into pieces. He sulked.

Corvina looked at Sun amusingly. "You mentioned that you were trying to find and aid your lady fair. Don't tell me..." she paused, trying to restrain her laughter. "that this woman is the one you've been trying to impress?" Sun sulked even more, giving his answer away, and she burst into obnoxious laughter, holding her stomach with her right arm and the glass with her other hand. Blake and Sun said nothing as she continued to laugh. "Oh... oh my gods... This is just too much!" She continued laughing for at least a solid minute. "Oh my gosh..." She turned to Sun with a smirk on her face. "Monkeyman, you really are a fool. Then again..." She slowly turned to Blake. "he's not the only one who's a fool."

"What do you mean by that?"

Her smirk was quickly replaced with a malevolent glare. "Don't take me for a fool, lassie. You're trying to kill me!"

Blake's eyebrows raised in terror and shock. "But... h...?"

"Oh please." Corvina interjected. "I've trained my senses to smell poison from a mile away." She clinched her fists in rage and sorrow as she threw the glass of poisoned wine to the ground. "But why?! How could you do this?!" She shook her clinched fists and held them downwards. "After everything I've done for you! This is mutiny!"

"I couldn't just stand by and do nothing! I know the truth!" She threw her glass onto the deck. "When I stepped on this ship, there were three faunus prisoners that you and your men killed! I will not let you continue this malevolent and hateful practice!"

She folded her arms. "You have no reason to help them. We humans are the dominant species. When we were created by the higher powers that put us on this planet, humans were here first. Faunus have no place in this world. They're not even supposed to exist."

"Don't you dare say that! We all have a place in this world! I don't know why you hate Faunus so much, but I will tell you that not all faunus are no good terrorists! I will never support your racist, supremacist agenda! And I won't stand by and do nothing while innocent people suffer for your actions!"

"Ye be a wicked wench! And a fool! Ye have made a grave mistake." She got out a switch and pressed the big red button. A blaring sound was heard from the megaphone speakers above. "Tell me this, fools, do you think you can face me, and me army of over a hundred pirates?!"

"You don't have to do this!" Blake protested, trying to get her to call off the attack.

She tossed the switch aside, letting it skid across the deck before stopping upon hitting the wall. "It be too late to ask for forgiveness, lass! You betrayed the captain, so now la captaine betrays you! Your mission now comes to an end!" She got out her dual cutlass swords. "I'll be the one to stop Adam Taurus and bring the White Fang to its knees! But first, to deal with ye!"

"Oh no..." Blake muttered in horror, her blood turning cold as the crew members started running onto the main deck.

Blake felt her heart sink as her blood iced over. Her attempt at a mutiny failed. Never before had she felt so much terror and despair. If she didn't find a way out of this, she would be dead, no one would ever find her corpse and her mission to stop Adam would fail. Corvina hopped up to the quarter deck with a devilish smirk and even laughed as sailors ran up from below deck to the main deck to respond to her summoning. The beauty looked around in despair. She felt moisture build up in her eyes and her heart pound. Was this the end for her? Was she going to die with regrets?

Sun, trying to ignore his breaking heart, approached the woman he loved and began, "Look, Blake, I know you're mad but hear..."

The moisture from her eyes faded as she remembered she had to fight. "Sun, save your breath. We've got a bigger problem." Blake interjected as she got out her weapon.

All hands were on deck before Sun could even speak again. Ivy looked at Corvina Noire with a curious, malicious smirk on her face. "What are your orders, Admiral?"

"Give no quarter and kill the monkeyman. As for the raven-haired traitor, slow her down. The faunus is fair game, but the traitor is mine!" She pointed to Sun with her sword. "Blow the man down!"

The crew members got out their weapons, which was mostly swords, a few pistols, and in the case of Ivy, a green whip with wind dust. Several members of the Noire Armada surrounded them. They approached the monkey faunus and the traitor, blocking them from all sides. Sun looked extremely worried as he backed away from the angry sailors as his lady fair did the same. "Blake..."

"Sun, just shut up." Blake interrupted again. "Whatever you have to say, can it." Her back was against Sun's as she looked at him with a scowl. "Otherwise, we'll both be buried at sea."


	34. Digging My Own Grave

Back against Blake's, Sun stood before the many members of the Noire Armada. Both former huntsman academy students stood before the angry sailors, about to become shark bait if they didn't act. "What now, boss?"

Blake rolled her eyes. "Hold them off. I'm going straight to the captain and finish what I started!"

Striking down sailors with the sheath, she quickly sprinted up the steps to the roof of the captain's quarters where Corvina was waiting with her swords in hand.

"Charging to your own death, it seems. If that be your wish, you will have it!"

Blake fired her gun at Corvina, the captain deflecting each shot with her swords in rapid succession, causing several shots to be fired at the deck below, which, unfortunately, ended up hurting a few members her crew. She gawked upon seeing the damage done before she growled and charged forth again. As Gambol Shroud converted from gun into a katana, a lone cloaked sailor stood with his back to the audience in the doorway enough to see the action, but not enough to be seen by the combatants. Turning away and leaving swiftly, he fled the scene before he could be seen by anyone.

Some of the sailors charged towards the stray lass, causing her to jump up, spin the ribbon part of her weapon around, grabbing the wrist of a sailor and knocking him in the head before tossing him overboard, landing on the back of another one, crashing his back while kicking them down against the rail of the ship. As the back-crushed sailor tried to get up, Blake slammed her foot down on his as she kept Corvina at bay with her gun and punched a female sailor into the ocean, she looked at the mass of sailors and noticed that Sun wasn't faring much better before turning back to the murderess. The monkeyman, as he was called by the captain, swiftly spun his staff around, trying to fend them off. As the sailors came towards him, he kept jumping back, trying to find a place to catch his breath and summon his clones, but he was too preoccupied with advancing back to avoid being decapitated. He spun his staff around five times in a row, trying to keep the sailors away, but they kept coming back.

As he did this, the monkey faunus cried out, "There's too many of them!"

He was then shoved to the ground by the assassin she saw earlier. "Sun!" Blake called out.

The brief distraction let Corvina approach her and kick her overboard, only for Blake to use her ribbon to swing around the ship, lifting her arm to pull herself up to the sail below the mizzenmast, tearing a slit into it, exposing the netting as she hoisted herself up to the mast, quickly gaining her balance thereafter. She mentally chided herself for getting distracted. Sun had his battle to fight, and Blake had her's. Yet, she couldn't help but worry. Her emotions were conflicting with each other as she tried to catch her breath and wait for Corvina to come to her.

 _Should I say something?_ she mentally asked herself. _I broke his heart... but... for what..?  
_

The sound of gunfire disrupted her thoughts, bringing her back to reality. Corvina growled and ran forth to the mizzenmast. As she did this, Sun kicked down the assassin and grabbed his knife. He took the knife and stabbed him in the gut, causing him to collapse to the ground, falling to his knees as his blood stained the main deck. He continued to slash through multiple sailors, leaving them a bloody mess before a female sailor grabbed his wrist and took the knife with her right hand before tossing it aside so that Sun couldn't use it. She punched him in the face, knocking him down as he dodged pistol shots from the gunners.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a loud metal clang sounded and another one and another one. A yellow cloaked figure knocked a sailor in the stomach with a big metal frying pan, then another one right on the head, and yet another right in the face. He began tying up the sailors as Sun manifested clones of himself from the bowsprit.

Corvina looked on from down below. "Who is he?" she softly asked herself. The captain looked up in time to stop Blake's katana from getting her neck. She pushed Blake back before yelling at her crew, "Seize them!"

The sailors charged toward him, but he kept jumping backwards, trying to tie up her sailors. Sun disconnected the two parts of his staff and started to fire at the gunners. "You'll never take me alive, sailors!"

As he shifted from dodging gunfire and approaching sailors to firing back, the black-bowed warrior continued to fight, her sword clashing and grinding against Corvina's as the captain asked, "Tell me this, Belladonna. Do you regret your pathetic attempt at mutiny?"

"I have no regrets about trying to bring you down." She shoved her sword forward and let her arms down, making her confession. "What I do regret is all the words I left unsaid, the actions I didn't carry out..." Corvina looked at her in confusion. "What I didn't say on the rooftops."

 _How I walked away..._

Sun felt a small surge of hope pulse through his chest. Was she talking about a possible confession of love? The thought quickly left his mind as another sailor swung his sword at him, forcing him to duck and roll backwards to dodge them. A female sailor found her wrist grabbed by the figure and he took out the assassin's knife, stabbing her in the back and letting her bleed out.

"Stop that cloaked killer!" Corvina ordered, before raising her cutlass swords to block Blake's katana.

"Why are you doing this?! Do you really believe that faunus are just _that_ bad?!" Blake asked in exasperation.

"I do." she answered as the fight continued below. "But at first, I didn't want to believe it." Blake slightly lowered her weapon, unsure what to do at this point. "Me parents told me this truth ever since I was a little girl. Yet, sometimes I didn't want to believe it. I thought they were being too harsh and jumping to conclusions too quickly. Five years ago, when I was but an older teenage lass about your age, I met a faunus with sheep ears. At first glance, he was one of the kindest people I had ever met. He showered me with gifts and affection and said the sweetest things to me. Before I knew it, I fell in love with him, and he said he would never hurt me. Being the young naive fool that I was, I believed him. One night, a few weeks after he began seeing me, he invited me over to his place. But when I got there, he did... unspeakable horrors. He was a wolf in sheep's clothing. He also attempted to kill me that night, and I barely escaped with my life.

"Not only that, he was also part of the White Fang. Upon learning the truth about him, I created this organization to oppose the White Fang, the faunus activist group turned terrorist. But a few months after I founded the Noire Armada, I witnessed a gang of faunus stealing from elderly humans in Vale, a female faunus in Atlas who has a reputation as an infamous murderer clad in white, and a couple of faunus being arrested for theft in Argus. I came to realize that all faunus are evil and that they must be exterminated. That is why I will stop at nothing to see them all destroyed."

Blake was silent for a moment before giving her response. "Not all faunus are evil, Corvina! Humans and Faunus can actually work together and get along when they can settle their differences. And if the chips are down, they will unite to fight. Both races defended Beacon and tried to save their school from destruction." She pointed to herself and Sun as she continued her speech. "We were there when it crumbled to pieces." She put her hand to her chest. "I fought against Adam Taurus himself, and he hurt my best friend!" She clinched her left fist in anger. "I left everyone I knew and loved behind to protect them from him! Why do you think I traveled all alone without anyone to help me?!" In her eyes, she held back tears, repressing a sob. "It's because it's my fault that she was hurt, and I'm not letting that happen to anyone else!"

"You think you're being noble by doing this all alone? You're nothing but a coward!"

Sounds of metal clashing and flying were heard down below deck. The frying pan was thrown against the wall as the figure was restrained, his hands forced behind his back by two Noire Armada sailors, one male and one female. He tried to escape their grasp, but it was no use.

"You are not getting away." the man said.

"Just who are you?" Ivy asked. Without further hesitation, she ripped the figure's cloak off, and as she held the garment in her hands, she gasped, letting the cloak slip out of her fingers and fall onto the deck. "Xanthe?!"

The second traitor said nothing as his cloak came off. "Aurgh! How many traitors are aboard this ship?!" Corvina asked angrily, dodging yet another attack from Blake.

"Shall we kill him?" the female sailor asked.

"Not yet, but hold him still."

The grip on his arms was tightened as Corvina charged towards the traitor. "You are a monster, Blake! You're almost as bad as faunus!"

Corvina swing both her swords forward in an outward x, trying to slash at Blake, only for her to backflip, land on the mast and lose her balance. She barely held on with her hands as Corvina approached her. "It doesn't matter who or what we are, we all have the ability to be heroes and monsters."

Xanthe looked away from the traitor painfully, reminding him of the truth.

The captain glared at her as she stood only mere inches from her hands. "You make this talk about heroes and monsters, trying to make it look like I'm the bad girl, yet you are the bad girl, for going up against me!"

She stepped on her hands, forcing her to let go and fall back first onto deck. Pain jolted from her shoulder blades down through the rest of her body, but she had no time to let it hold her down. Corvina jumped down from the mast and even threw one of her swords as she fell, but Blake ducked, missing her head by a few inches before getting up and fleeing to the upper deck. As the admiral retrieved her weapon, Blake tried to catch her breath before engaging in combat once again.

 _Is there peace beyond the rage?_ the secret catgirl silently asked herself.

As the duel between the raven haired women continued, Ivy and Sun battled on the main deck of the ship. Ivy used the air currents created from the green dust in her whip to try and knock the monkey faunus overboard. Barely dodging the air waves, he found his back against the main mast of the ship, and she swung her whip again, this time directly at him. He dodged the whip itself, but the dust created wind currents knocked him back into the mast as he tried to get up. His back slid down before Ivy grabbed him by the collar.

Her hand on his collar, she smirked maliciously. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?"

"No, I probably don't." He smirked and fired off explosions from his staff as he twirled around, knocking her in the back and falling face first onto the deck. She got up, growling as she was outsmarted by a faunus.

Clouded by rage, she swung her whip towards him again, only this time he held his staff like a pole, and once the whip was wrapped around it, he used it to wrestle Ivy's weapon away from her. Once she was weaponless, he kicked her down, grabbed some rope and tied her up.

The captain's right hand tried to escape, but it was no use. The ropes were bound too tightly to give her any chance of escape. "Ugh! Curse you, monkeyman! Corvina will have your head for this!"

Sun laughed, but he had no time to relish in his victory- sailors were still coming right towards him! As Corvina tried to catch her breath, she held the upper part of her right arm and let Blake tire herself out by fighting her sailors. "You have no reason to defend faunus!" she taunted.

Blake parried the blow she would have received from the sailor's sword by thrusting hers forward. "I have every reason to defend them!"

"Ye be a fool, Blake. Even if you could stop me and me crew, which ya can't, ye can't bring down an entire army!"

The black bowed lass looked at the deck below in despair. Was she right? If she couldn't even stop the Noire Armada, could she stop the White Fang? Swallowing her fear and sorrow, she clinched her fists. "I can try!"

"So why are you defending faunus? They're nothing but liars, thieves and murderers!"

"Well maybe they were tired of being pushed around!"

Blake winced in pain as a sailor punched her bow, she held her right side of the bow with her hand before head-butting the sailor that punched her.

 _Did my eyes deceive me? There's nothing under that bow... Unless... Wait a second._ That said sailor was thrown overboard as Corvina's thought train continued. _Is she...?_

"Don't tell me... Underneath that bow... you're hiding cat ears?!

Blake said nothing and tried to run, but Corvina snapped her fingers and two of the sailors hastily grabbed her arms. She grunted as she escaped to escape, but it was no use. The captain put the swords on her hip, grabbed the bow and yanked it right off her head, hurting her and causing her let out a scream of pain.

"Blake!" Sun cried out. He had no room to breathe as he was knocked against the mast, his aura flickering before disappearing completely.

Corvina gasped as she held the bow in her hand, confirming what she already knew. "I knew it! Ye be a liar, a faker, a pretender!" As she looked at the cat ears Blake possessed, her fury intensified. "Ye have been deceiving me all along, running rigs with your bow! I can't believe I thought it was cute! Ye should not be allowed to hide what ye truly be!"

The evil admiral tore the ribbon with her bare hands. Blake watched on in horror as her the one item preventing her from being discriminated against was destroyed before Corvina threw the scraps into the sea. Despite his strain, Sun got up, ready to face the Noire Armada again, about to resume the wearying fight when he heard the captain getting out her cutlass swords again.

"You don't have to do this."

She slowly approached the cat faunus. "You're not going to change me mind about sparing you lassie!"

"I'm not asking you to spare me." She stopped in confusion, possibly taking her words into consideration. "You have every right to be angry with me. I'm asking you to stop your vendetta against the faunus and spare him. He never did anything to you!"

"Silence, you scurvy dog!" she commanded. "Er, cat!" After cleaning up her previous statement, she cleared her throat. "I'll never stop! I won't rest until every faunus in this world is dead!" She walked forth towards Blake again, the sound of her swords grinding against each other as she sharpened them. "And your blood will be a reminder that no faunus can hide from me! So long, Belladonna!"

"Blake!"

Sun ran forth as Corvina's sword attempted to stab Blake in the heart, intercepting it with his own bare hand in the nick of time. As she brought the cutlass down on his right arm, the blade sliced through several layers of his skin, creating a deep cut as he lashed out in pain.

"SUN!"

A tear escaped from her eyes as she felt a rush of anger and adrenaline run through her system, flinging her arms, breaking free from the sailors holding her down, knocking them overboard before noticing Sun on the ground, struggling to remain conscious. Corvina attempted to strike the monkey faunus in the heart, only for her sword to be stopped by Blake's.

The sound of clashing metal could be heard as the fight between the opponents raged on. Blake glared at the captain with even more fury than before. "You will not hurt him!"

Corvina scoffed. "Why would you save him?" She forced herself forward, attempting to get the upper hand. "Aren't you angry with him?"

"He means more to me than you'll ever realize!"

"Don't tell me that you actually have feelings for that... that rapscallion?" Pushed back and kicked in the gut, she screamed as she fell onto the lower deck, which had been mostly cleared in the center thanks to the efforts of Xanthe and Sun. Quickly getting up, Corvina glared at the cat faunus.

Blake jumped down to face her on equal footing, proclaiming, "He's not a rapscallion! He's not a degenerate! He is a person just like you and I are!"

"Can you really even say that considering you have nowhere to hide?"

"You may know the truth about my heritage," she switched to her gun, "but that won't stop me from facing you."

She fired at Corvina, but she backflipped and cartwheeled backwards, evading her fire. "You think you can stop me? Ha!" She landed with her arms holding herself up before jumping and landing back down on her feet. "You must be weakened by now, and my sailors will finish off that monkeyboy in no time."

"Your sailors? Look around you, Corvina! Your army has fallen."

She looked around in horror and realized that Blake was right. All of her sailors had been knocked unconscious, tied up, killed and/or knocked overboard. Blood stained the deck, several bodies of the dead and unconscious on the floor. "But... how?! You... you were outnumbered!"

"We may have been outnumbered, but you were outmatched. Surrender now, Corvina!" Blake commanded. "Your anti-faunus regime will never last!"

Suddenly, a few of the unconscious sailors began to wake up and charged towards the cat faunus. Without hesitation, Xanthe retrieved his frying pan and held it to block the incoming swords. "I'll hold em off! Finish the captain!" he ordered.

Blake gladly complied, charging forth to face Corvina once again. As the Noire Armada Traitor faced the comrades he once knew, the cat faunus dueled with the captain again.

The captain picked up a sword belonging to her fallen subordinate and said, "Ya know, I'm surprised that a dangerous lass like ye isn't a part of the White Fang.", before throwing it at her.

She dodged the attack easily. "You want to know something, Corvina?" Another sword, and another, and another. "I actually was once part of the White Fang."

The admiral gasped. "You, formerly a member of the White Fang?" She folded her arms, the swords she retrieved still in hand to block the incoming attack. "I don't believe it. If you were once a member, why would ye ever leave em?"

"Because I learned the truth about them! I will never go back there willingly without fighting them."

"How can I believe you? You're a liar! Heck, you're not even after Adam at all, are you? You're just using me to get back to him! Nay, ye really be a spy for the White Fang sent to murder me!"

"I would never work with him! Did you completely ignore my speech about Adam hurting my best friend?! You try to make yourself as the good girl, but in reality you're even worse than Adam!" Blake proclaimed.

"Tis not true, lass! I am better than he is! I never attacked a huntsman school, nor did I ever kill innocent humans! But you are not human or innocent!"

Xanthe finished tying up the sailors that had woken up as Corvina growled and threw her cutlass swords at Blake. Ducking to avoid them, the catgirl jumped up and out of her sight.

"Stop running away, you scaredy cat!" Behind the mast, Blake created a few shadows of herself, and after the admiral retrieved her weapons, she started slashing through the shadows. "You think you can defeat me through deception?!" The shadows were gone, leaving her searching for the catwoman warrior, not finding her. "Come out and face me, you no-good...!"

Her words came to a halt, replaced by a gasp and the clatter of swords against the deck as Blake thrust her katana through Corvina's back, breaking her spine and killing her instantly. As she did this, she earned many gasps from the Noire Armada sailors, no louder and more horrified than Ivy. As soon as Blake removed her weapon, the captain's corpse fell to the ground. Much to Blake's surprise, no one had screamed in horror. The truth was they were too horrified and/or depressed to say anything.

"Goodbye, my captain." The black beauty took Corvina's hat and donned it to hide her cat ears.

 _Finally... It's over..._ she thought to herself.

Not even three seconds later, Blake heard Sun groaning in agony as he slowly regained consciousness. "Sun!"

She ran over to him as he lied atop the upper deck, slowly bleeding out from his injury. Weakened and saddened, he said, "Blake... I... I'm sorry."

"Just shut it. I need to get stuff to tend to your wounds. Don't move."

She zipped out at an ungodly speed and came back with a first aid kit. She knelt beside him, opened the kit, and got out some bandages. She wrapped them around his arm tightly. "Ahh! Not so tight!" he protested.

"You're really bleeding." She tied a small knot in the bandage to keep it in place. "See Sun? This is why I told you to stay away. I never wanted you to get hurt, but you did. And this isn't even the White Fang! I.. I just. Ugh! I'm just tempted to slap you right now! What do you have to say for yourself?!"

"I'm sorry." Her eyes were daggers as she glared at him. "I know you're angry and you have every right to be. If it helps you feel any better, just go ahead and slap me." Blake angrily took his left hand and gave him slap on the wrist. "Ow!"

She looked at him wide-eyed with horror. "Oh my gosh. I'm sorry I..."

"No, no, I deserve it. I was a jerk." He looked tried not to look her in the eye out of fear, but this was proving to be quite difficult. "I was thinking with my heart and my own selfish desires and not thinking with my head. I never once thought about your warning."

The catgirl felt moisture in her eyes slowly build up. "Sun... I..."

"I get it. You don't love me. You probably hate me now, but before you shut me out of your life, hear me out." He looked to his side, seeing the tied up sailors on the top deck and those who fell in battle. "Ever since you ran, I was losing my mind. I was at the safehouse for a whole week before eventually running off to try and find you. My teammates knew how miserable I was after you ran. My team went back to Mistral without me, and... and I just couldn't rest. I lost countless hours of sleep, worried about you to no end. I deduced that you decided to take on the White Fang all by yourself, without your team, without friends, and.. I didn't want you to perish." He turned back to his beloved so that his eyes met hers. "You mean everything to me."

The tears she held back earlier returned, but were kept in her eyes. "Sun... That's..."

"Insane, I know. I'm absolutely fucking insane, and Corvina was right." He looked at Blake's pirate hat that she took from the captain, seeing the similarity between his beloved and his enemy. "She was right from the very beginning. I'm just a fool. A complete fool who doesn't deserve your love."

"Sun... I..." She sniffed, the words she wanted to say failing her.

"Blake?"

Without any warning, she swiftly placed herself on top of him, crashed her lips onto Sun's and let the tears fall. All those emotions she had bottled up for months were finally being released in one swift action. At first, Sun was too stunned to do anything, but after three seconds, he returned the kiss and gently embraced her. She put her arms around his neck, never wanting to let go. As the kiss broke, Blake started to sob.

"Blake, please... don't cry..." He wiped her tears away with a gentle thumb. "I don't want to see you cry." He looked into her eyes worryingly, as if he had done something wrong. "Blake?"

"Sun..." She sniffed. "I love you." Another sniff. "I've been hiding these feelings for months." She wiped away the remaining tears with her hand. "I thought that if I left, I could protect you, but you came after me anyway." She sighed. "Seems there's no getting rid of you, is there?"

He chuckled. "Afraid not, my love."

She blinked as more tears escaped and looked at him sadly. "Are you really willing to risk your neck to help me stop Adam Taurus and the White Fang?"

He still had no idea who Adam was, and he was scared on the inside, but the monkeyboy answered calmly, "I am more than willing. I know you didn't want me here, but since I'm here, would you at least give me a chance?"

"Alright, I'll give you a chance."

"Really? Thank you!"

She gave him a glare. "Don't push it."

"Sorry." His eyes then darted to the sailor that had helped them, standing at the head of the stairs on the left. Upon noticing that they were being watched, Blake got up and extended her hand to Sun, helping him up. "We should probably address the elephant on the ship." Sun turned to Xanthe. "Who are you?"

"No, no." Blake responded. "The question is," she turned to him. "who are you really?"

The Noire Armada traitor answered, "The name's Xanthe, and I'm a Noire Armada double crosser."


	35. Sometimes Goodbye is a Second Chance

"The name's Xanthe, and I'm a Noire Armada double crosser."

"Xanthe? Who are you working for?" Sun asked.

"No one. I'm not doing this on behalf of someone else." He clinched his fists. "This is a personal matter."

"But as far I can see, you're not a faunus." Sun observed. "Are you?"

"I'm not a faunus, but I am a half blood."

Blake gasped. "A half blood?" Sun asked bewildered.

"It generally refers to a human child who has one human parent and one faunus parent." Blake answered.

"Oh, I've heard of kids born from one of each parent. I just never knew there was an actual term for it."

Xanthe turned to Sun. "I'm surprised you never heard that term before." He then looked at both of them. "But yes, I'm a normal human. My father, he's just a regular normal guy. Nothing weird or abnormal about him. My mother however, is a cat faunus with blonde cat ears. My sister also inherited those traits. Some people in my community saw it as a weird thing that my parents were an interracial couple, but I didn't really care. We were just another family. Several months ago, before Beacon's tower fell, the four of us were on a fishing trip. My father is a fishmonger, and he thought it would be fun to bring us along to see what his job is like.

"So there we were, minding our own business, when suddenly, we were sprung by evil sailors in black and white uniforms from a ship baring an X sword emblem. They swiftly overwhelmed us, and since no one had combat training, we couldn't defend ourselves. I tried to defend my little sister, but they overwhelmed me and I was horribly injured. Black eyes, bruises, and even a deep cut that would leave a scar on my left arm. They murdered my mother and little sister right before our eyes and sunk the ship. Me and my father swam back to shore, but we barely made it back with our lives. As a result of the attack, my father had sunk into a deep depression and eventually had to be hospitalized because he attempted suicide. I tried working a job to support him, but my efforts did little in the long run. I wanted revenge. I wanted to know who created that band of sailors and end them, once and for all.

"My only clue to who was responsible was the following words." He cleared his throat before mocking a raspy voice. "'May Noire bring about a new age!' Upon recalling these words, I typed Noire into the search engine of my scroll, and tried to find something, but nothing was there. As time went on, my rage intensified and after realizing that my father couldn't be helped, I left my home behind in search of answers. Three months ago, I saw a green haired woman in pirate clothing making a speech. This woman was actually Ivy, Corvina Noire's right hand woman, and there were a bunch of supremacists listening to her speech. Ivy stood on a wooden stage with the same sailors from day of the murder. She spoke, 'The Noire Armada will not stand by and watch the faunus burn the world. We will not stop until all faunus are dead.' Upon seeing her, I believed she was the leader, so I joined at the chance of hoping to kill her, pretending to pledge loyalty.

"However, after I got on the ship that was docked at the port, I realized that the leader was actually Corvina Noire, Ivy's best friend. So I had to keep up the act of being a malicious supremacist while simultaneously creating a bomb that would bring Corvina's ship down. I was originally going to implant the bomb on the ship after finding Corvina Noire, detonate it, and blow it up, killing everyone on board, including myself. My life had become miserable, and I saw no point in continuing on. I had found Corvina not too long before Blake's arrival. However, when Blake Belladonna stepped aboard the ship, I had to put my plan on hold. I had no problems risking my life to stop Admiral Noire's reign, but I couldn't risk her life, especially when she was doing a noble cause. I saw first hand how evil the Noire Armada is, so I put everything on the line to stop them, even at the cost of my own life."

"You don't have to sacrifice yourself to end the Noire Armada." Blake said to him. "You could continue posing as a loyal agent, apprehend evil captains, fight against the Noire Armada and bring an end to them."

He smiled, touching his finger to his chin. "Yeah, I could, couldn't I?"

"You traitor!" a feminine voice yelled while struggling against the rope. The three turned to Ivy. "I can't believe you! I can't believe I trusted you." She looked at Xanthe sadly with a hint of blush on her face. "I can't believe I fell for you."

"Also that would never work!" the lantern holder, who was right beside Ivy, protested.

"It would. No one outside this ship even knows that Corvina's been defeated, and with the CCT down, no one can notify the captains and other officers." Xanthe remarked. "Which brings up the question- what are we gonna do with these prisoners?"

Blake smirked. "What's the old pirate saying? 'Dead men tell no tales?'"

"Yeah, that sounds right."

"But could we really murder all of these guys?" Sun asked.

"That's up to Captain Belladonna."

"Captain Belladonna?" Sun and Blake asked at the same time.

The traitor looked at Blake. "You defeated the captain." He pointed at the headgear she was wearing. "You even took her hat. You're the one running this ship now."

Her eyes darted up. "I only took the hat to hide these cat ears until I can get a replacement bow. But I will admit, I like the idea of Captain Belladonna. Has a nice ring to it."

"So what do we do, Captain?" Sun asked.

"We continue heading forth to mainland Vale."

"And the prisoners?"

"Hmm... Xanthe... I need you to give me a headcount on how many Noire Armada sailors are here, who's alive and who's not, not counting Corvina or yourself."

Xanthe nodded. "Aye aye, captain."

With a clipboard and pen in hand, he started walking around. "Sun, go make sure that none of the sailors have their weapons. If you find weapons, bring them to me."

"Right away."

The monkey faunus started gathering weapons, leaving the new captain to silently gather her thoughts.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Arc family home, Pyrrha Nikos stood in Jaune's room. She looked at the circlet she once wore placed before the sword of Penny and the photo of her. The circlet had become damaged, and as she inspected it, she saw a crack in it. Had that been there since her battle with Cinder? She sighed, seeing it as a sign that she had fallen from grace, but yet, it wasn't even her fault. She had been tricked, deceived, used as a tool, a pawn... A catalyst.

 _I was used as a catalyst. Nothing more, nothing less.  
_

"Pyrrha?" a voice asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She turned to see her boyfriend, Jaune, smiling for a brief moment. She turned away and looked at the display of items. "I was just thinking... when I look at this circlet, I'm reminded of how I nearly fell in battle, how I was defeated, and how... how... I was forced to hide myself from the world."

His mind trailed back to when he saw her again for the first time. She was wearing a red cloak with her hood down. He blinked in shock, coming out of his brief flashback and asked her, "You were forced to hide your identity? Is that why you were wearing that cloak?"

Pyrrha nodded to answer his question. "What choice did I have? I was nearly killed by crazy civilians. The world seems to believe I'm a criminal."

"But that's not true! You know that's not true!"

"I know." She stared down at the floor. "But it doesn't help that I failed to keep the second part of my promise."

"Your promise?"

Lifting her head back up and turning around, she took her right arm, picked up Penny's sword and held it in her hands. "Remember when I took Penny's swords, promised not to use them against the innocent, and vowed to stop the ones responsible for her death? Emerald has yet to be defeated, and Cinder has not fallen in battle. I turned away from my word, and I feel that I have left her down." Ruefully setting down the sword, Pyrrha stood in silence. Jaune looked at her, wanting to say something, but he didn't know what to say. "Sometimes I've thought of going after Cinder and her underlings, but realistically speaking, I don't stand a chance. If I went after them by myself, I'd die all alone."

"But what if you weren't alone?"

"That's what I've been thinking." She looked at him with forlorn sincerity. "Jaune... Would you be willing to join me on a quest to bring Cinder to justice? It won't be easy and there's a high chance of..."

"I'm in." he immediately answered.

Pyrrha blinked in disbelief. "You are?"

"Yes." He threw his arms around her. "I don't want to risk losing you again." She returned the embrace, wrapping her arms around his chest with her hands on his shoulders. "You mean the world to me. And if I let go, I don't know if you'll ever come back." Jaune stepped back, looking at his beloved. "But if we're going after Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, we're going to need more help."

Pyrrha got out the address sheet. "How about reuniting the team together for one last mission?"

"That's... actually not a bad idea. Team JNPR vs Cinder and her allies. One final mission. We have no time to lose."

"Then we better get started with preparations immediately."

The two began packing, with Jaune putting Pyrrha's damaged circlet into his bag along with one of Penny's swords.

* * *

Back on the Noire Armada ship, Sun dumped the last of the weapons onto the poop deck. "There. All weapons have been brought forth, gathered and confiscated."

The new captain smiled. "Excellent work, Sun. Now we wait for Xanthe to give us the body count."

On the other side of the deck, Xanthe spoke loudly, "Avast, Captain Belladonna, I've been crunching some numbers, and apparently, before you got on board, there were 117 members of the Noire Armada aboard the ship, not counting myself. Twenty of them are missing, so I can assume they were thrown overboard. Seventeen that were killed on board and are lying around here somewhere. Everyone else is alive, and anyone who wasn't tied up in now bound in chains and/or rope. So if you do the math, that's... eighty prisoners to deal with."

Blake's smile faded, replaced with a frown as Sun groaned, "Oh boy... Eighty no good sailors, and no idea what to do with them."

"Not to mention the bodies. If we don't dispose of them soon enough, we'll get disease and we'll be in no shape to hunt after Adam."

"But should we really get rid of their corpses? I mean, if we bring in the dead sailors and their captain, maybe the people in power will do something about it and try to bring the Noire Armada down."

"I don't think it do any good, considering the White Fang has a big target on their back after the Fall of Beacon. Also, wouldn't that prevent Xanthe from achieving his goal of bringing the Noire Armada down?"

"But the problem what that being is that if we dispose of their corpses, they might not believe us when we drag in the prisoners of war."

Blake sighed. "So many decisions." The new captain turned to Xanthe. "How much further until we reach the shores of Vale?"

At the wheel, Xanthe answered, "My calculations tell us that we'll be at shore in approximately one day."

"Well this gives us one day to figure out what to do with these sailors."

Sun looked at the pirates surrounding the three of them. "Moral dilemma on what to do with the scurvy pirates... Not the best way to start a relationship."

"It could be worse."

"Well, you're awfully optimistic."

Blake chuckled, a smile forming on her face. "You say that like it's bad thing."

Sun stammered, "It's not, but, it's a bit... unusual for you."

Her smile faded. "Hey, this is nothing compared to what is to come."

* * *

Later that evening, after Jaune and Pyrrha finished packing their bags, the former broke the news to his family. Pyrrha and Jaune stood nearby the foot of stairs, Rouge was sitting in the red reclining chair while everyone else was on the couch.

"You're kidding, right?" Rouge asked.

"No, I'm not kidding." Jaune answered. "Me and Pyrrha believe that Cinder Fall and her allies need to be stopped."

Rouge raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you believe that you are qualified for this mission?"

"Because we are fully aware of what we are up against. Pyrrha is going to need all the help she can get in order to face her."

"This isn't an excuse to get out of housekeeping, is it?" Rouge inquired.

"No, although that is a bonus." Jaune said, chuckling for a brief moment. Rouge glared at him before his resumed his serious demeanor. "But in all seriousness, we're doing this in hopes of finding answers; Who is truly responsible for the Fall of Beacon? What did they do that we failed to notice or didn't know about? How can we stop them and prevent this from happening to the other huntsman schools? These and several other questions remain unanswered."

Pyrrha added, "Also, I have a promise to fulfill to the dead, and I can't do this alone."

Rouge rolled her eyes, wanting to criticize her brother, but instead she sighed heavily and asked, "Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"No offense, Jaune, but this doesn't seem like a good idea." Tangerine stated.

"It's better than my stupid idea to forge transcripts to Beacon when I really wasn't ready. Also I'm not hiding my intentions like I was when I was about to depart for Beacon Academy. I'm being honest here and letting you all know what I am about to do." Jaune retaliated.

The tough tomboy yielded. "Fair point."

Azura sighed forlornly. "This is a hard pill to swallow, especially after Emerald's departure, but I appreciate you being honest this time. It is also fortunate that you will not be alone in your endeavor for justice. Good luck you two."

"Thanks, but we're not leaving immediately."

"When are you leaving?" Roux asked.

"Tomorrow, after sunrise."

Rouge sighed as she looked at her younger brother. "I guess there's no stopping you, is there?"

"Nope!"

She sighed and secretly thought to herself, _He's dead._

"Well, thanks for your honesty." Azure said. "Is there anything we can do to help prepare you for your journey?"

"We already have everything prepared. Although I suppose one last family dinner might be in order."

"Any requests?"

"Surprise me."

After dinner, Pyrrha found herself with Jaune alone in the backyard after Jaune's last combat lesson with Tangerine. "Hey Jaune? Can I ask you something?"

Jaune turned to her. "What is it?"

"How did you get the money for Beacon?" she asked.

"I stole it." Jaune confessed. "I saw a guy leave an unattended briefcase of cash while on a phone call, 100,000 Lien to be exact, and when he closed his eyes and no one else was looking, I took the case for my ticket to Beacon. I realize that I did a bad thing, and I knew it was bad, but I tried to disregard it. Guilt ate at me, and after Azura discovered my forgery, I admitted the theft to my parents, but not my sisters." Pyrrha said nothing, but turned away from him sadly. "You're disappointed in me, aren't you?"

"I am, but at least you are willing to admit what you did was wrong. And that does not change how I feel about you."

He faintly smiled. "What did I do to deserve you?"

Jaune gave her a quick peck on the lips. Pyrrha retaliated by dragging him closer to her and kissing him passionately. After getting lost in him, she looked into his eyes. "So why don't you tell them? Your sisters?"

"I want to tell them, but I can't, mainly because of Azura's semblance. If Azura found out, she would almost certainly report me to the authorities in a heartbeat. Also, I am scared of how my sisters would react if they did know the truth."

"Is Azura unable to lie because of her lie-detecting semblance?"

"I have no idea. It is possible that she is physically capable of lying, but chooses not to because of her high moral code of honor, but I do not really know. Either way, it doesn't matter now. Soon, we'll be leaving for Fiti, then to Mistral."

"It's not too late to confess the truth, but if you feel like the consequences could impede the mission, then I can't blame you for staying silent."

He took her hand, smiling. "Thanks for understanding."

Pyrrha blushed and smiled as the two looked up at the moon.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Mistral, the moon shone in the sky as Athena and Ares were in the air, the latter holding onto the hand of the owl winged faunus.

"How close are we to the secret camp you told me about?"

"Not too much further." He pointed down below him. "There it is!"

Athena flew downward, her wings slowing down as she descended further to the ground. From a wooden platform at the top of a pole, a female faunus with brown cat ears sat down, slouching on a beach chair and suddenly sprung to life upon seeing the owl winged faunus.

"Athena! You're back!" She cupped her hands around her mouth and called out to the other members. "Everyone, come quick!"

She let Ares' feet touch the ground before unhanding him and landing beside him. The cat faunus ignored the ladder and jumped down, landing perfectly on her feet. Athena looked around the small encampment, taking in the semicircle of grey tents and another tent to the side of the semicircle before the fire pit in the center. All the other faunus there, to which there were only five not counting Ares or Athena, came out of their tents to greet their leader. Among these faunus were those with one with fangs, one with a green lizard tail, one with scales, the brown cat eared faunus and even a man with sheep ears.

"So this is where you guys choose to hide ourselves?" The wise woman smiled to herself. "Not bad, not bad."

"Mr. Adamos, where are the others?" the sheep faunus asked.

"I couldn't get them out yet." Ares looked at Athena with a loving smile. "I had to focus on bringing back our leader."

She looked at her cohorts reassuringly. "One day, we will get them out and burn that infernal prison to ashes, but for now we must move on." Ares handed her a notepad and a pen, to which she took the writing utensil and made a line on the notepad before handing it back to him. "The first part of the plan is complete. We must move onto the second part."

"What's the second part?" the cat eared faunus asked.

"Oh you'll see." Athena answered. "This plan is a complex multi-part operation that shall be unfurled in due time. Athena always has a plan, isn't that right?"

"Yes, Mistress Athena."

"I thought so."

An alarm went off on the brown catgirl's scroll. "Oh Marrok."

The sheep faunus groaned. "Looks like it's my turn to stand watch." He sighed and climbed up the ladder to the top, grumbling, "I hate this job."

"Smart idea to have someone stand watch." Athena then turned to Ares. "Now then, Ares, you told me during our flight that you set up a grand personal tent for both of us. Lead me there."

The ram horned faunus lead her to a golden tent with a gray interior as she entered. In the middle of the room lay a queen sized air mattress with red and gold sheets and grey pillows for them to sleep on, a desk with blueprints and plans to her right and bags and boxes of supplies to her left.

"So, is it to your liking?"

She smiled, giving away her answer. "You are the best."

"I know, but thanks for telling me." He sat down on the bed as Athena stood before the desk. "So what exactly is the next step?"

"We must send one of our recruits to the prison to weaken the system from the inside. If we could hide their faunus trait that would be even better, but it is not mandatory for the mission. Tomorrow we will move out and recruit more faunus."

"So who will we send to the prison?" Ares asked.

"Hmm... That is a good question." Athena looked over files of the five remaining agents she had recruited to her cause, all listed in alphabetical order.

 _Aoi, Cola, Gilford, Marrok, Tawny  
_

"Hmm... Not Cola, he can't be stealthy to save his life. Gilford has a criminal record for being a thief, so not him. That leaves us with Aoi, Marrok and Tawny. They're all qualified for the mission in terms of stealth."

"Perhaps maybe we should choose someone who's already from Mistral so that the people in Argus aren't highly suspicious."

"You know, I didn't even take that into consideration. Marrok said he's from Vale, Aoi is actually from Mistral City, and Tawny..." She examined the file of the female brown eared cat faunus that greeted them. "is from Wind Path. No one knows her, no one would be able to question her, and with some work, we could hide her faunus trait, and no one would know that she helped to storm Sanctum. Ares, send for Tawny and tell her that I wish to speak with her at once."

"As you wish."

Ares left the tent at once, leaving the wise woman to her thoughts.

* * *

The next day, after the sun had risen, Jaune and Pyrrha were about to leave the Arc family home. Once again, all who were living in the household were present to send them off. From the entrance of the home, the two saw everyone lined up ready to bid them farewell, with Jaune's parents being towards the front, and the six remaining Arc sisters in reverse chronological order.

"I can't believe that I'm doing this." Jaune said to everyone.

"I know. I'm a bit surprised that you're willing to risk your neck to aid me in my goal." Pyrrha responded.

"And risk the chance of losing you again? No way!" He turned to his parents. "Bye mom, bye dad." Jaune hugged his mother. "Love ya mom."

"Goodbye, Jaune. Love you. I hope everything goes well." Azure said, returning the embrace. "Good luck, Pyrrha."

"Thank you!"

"Love you son. Keep each other safe." Roux instructed.

"Good luck Jaune!" Amethyst said. "You can do it, I know you can!"

Jaune smiled sheepishly. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, little gem."

"I'd give you the advice of faking it til you make it, but I don't think that would help you." Indigo remarked. "Good luck though! Kick her butt!"

Azura looked at them worryingly. "Honestly, I'm scared that you'll never return."

"Don't remind me." Jaune replied.

"Good luck to you both though."

Acacia exclaimed, "Good luck on your quest you two lovebirds!"

"Thanks and good luck in your singing career!" Jaune responded.

"Goodbye and good luck, Acacia!" Pyrrha replied.

The singer smiled to herself. "Thank you guys!"

"Goodbye Jaune." Tangerine nodded. "Remember what I've taught you and you should survive."

He smiled brightly at the tough tomboy. "Thanks Tang."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "You called me 'Tang'. Only Yang ever called me that..."

Tangerine began musing silently to herself as Rouge observed them.

"I know you have done stupid things before, but hopefully, this isn't one of them." Rouge said.

Jaune folded his arms. "You're probably thinking that I'm doing something stupid right now by leaving."

"Yes, I am. But instead of criticizing you, I'm going to ask you; why are you really doing this?" Jaune unfolded his arms and was about to answer when she continued, "I'm not asking you to answer, but I advise you to think about it. You and your girlfriend are about to embark on a highly dangerous mission, from which you might never return. This issue could be deeper than you realize, so before you fight in your own war, you must understand what you're fighting for. If you don't, you'll lose sight of what matters. Never forget your intentions, or your training. And _don't_ forget what I told you."

"I'll... keep that in mind. Goodbye everyone!"

"Goodbye!" Pyrrha called back to them.

"Goodbye!" they all answered in unison.

The two began walking down the hill. Upon making it down to the bottom, the two found themselves standing before a large forest. Pyrrha looked back at the Arc family home on top of the hill. "Looks like we're really saying goodbye, aren't we?"

"We are, but sometimes..." He took her hand in hers. "Sometimes goodbye is a second chance."

The two walked off into the unknown, hand in hand, as they began the first part of their quest.


	36. Come Sail Away with Me

Author's Notes;

-Looks like we've reached 100 reviews. Many thanks to all my readers!

-This is where we start to see some of the characters take their timeskip designs. Of course, not all will be shown at once.

-I know it's later than I would normally publish this, but between the last scene and the fact that I was in Chicago for a few days made me think I wouldn't complete it in time. But I did! Also, there's another lemon for you in this chapter. Once again, it is in the last section, and it features the always adored Arkos.

Now then, let's weigh anchor and get this ship sailing!

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha were walking in the forest, having recently started on their quest. As Jaune held a map in his hands, he groaned, "I can't believe that the airports in Olympia aren't in operation."

Pyrrha snickered. "I thought you hated being on a plane."

"I do, but still, it would be better than having to trek for miles. Hopefully, when we get the team back together, we'll have an easier time getting to Mistral."

"Then again, it's not like either of us are anxious for this quest."

"No, you're right." He sighed. "I guess I'm just scared, and Rouge's parting words aren't helping matters."

"Forget about her commentary. We have to focus on the present. Right now, we still have to reunite team JNPR if we want to stand any chance against Cinder and her allies."

The two walked forward. "So how are we going to get to Fiti?"

"Well, if you're not up walking to Vale and catching a boat from there to Fiti, we could try and find a boat that'll take us directly to Fiti, hopefully without depleting too much money."

"That might work. But where are we going to find a harbor?"

"Hand me the map?" Jaune handed the world map to her. She looked at the red dot marked on Olympia. "Hmm... This map tells us of a coastal city about... ten miles northwest from here? Maybe we can find a ship there. Have you ever been on a ship?"

"A few times. Have you?"

"I never have. Well then, here's hoping that I'm not seasick."

* * *

Back in Atlas, Jacques Schnee and his son stood in the courtyard as the butlers took their luggage to the cargo hold of the private jet. Whitley watched on as Klein took his white suitcase and whisked it away.

"So, are you ready for your first business trip?" Mr. Schnee asked.

Whitley nodded happily and eagerly. "Oh, yes! I'm eager to see what events will occur! I'm surprised that big sister isn't here to send us off."

"You have to bear in mind, Whitley, that Weiss is still recovering from the events of Beacon."

They watched on as they took a periwinkle roll on suitcase into the plane. "But wasn't that nearly two months ago?"

"You are forgetting, Whitley, that she witnessed first hand the destruction of a huntsman academy. Several lives were lost and many more were injured. It is also likely that a close friend of hers perished during the fall."

"Huh. I never thought of it like that."

"You never do." a feminine voice said. Estelle walked forth, pointing her finger at both of them. "You have not even bothered to hear her story, neither of you."

"Oh come now, Madame Blanche. Why would the details of the Fall of Beacon matter to us? We already know what happened."

"But you don't..."

"Now, now, go be sure that Willow hasn't run off somewhere." She groaned under her breath and walked away. Klein turned away despondently as well as he put the last suitcase in the jet. "Well, our bags are packed. I would say it's time to get moving."

The father and son walked into the plane and soon thereafter, it took off. Far above them, Weiss stood in her room against the window, watching the scene unfold below. She couldn't hear a word they had said, nor could she see the expressions on their face and how Estelle angrily walked away. Turning away from the window, she went to her closet and looked in her chest, where her weapon had been placed. She hadn't touched it since she got home. She hadn't used her semblance in so long. Everything, her path to become a huntress at Beacon, breaking free from her father, almost all her plans for the future had come to a grinding halt.

 _At least I still have the title of heiress to inherit._

She took the pendant she wore and held it in her hands.

 _I once promised that I'd never become a pawn for my father. I also promised that I'd save Pyrrha..._ She examined the apple charm on the pendant. _Did she fall? Did she survive? If anything happened..._

Three consecutive knocks were heard on her door, disrupting her thoughts. "Come in."

Estelle entered the heiress's chambers, followed by Klein. The elderly maid spoke, "Jacques Schnee and your brother Whitley have departed, Mistress."

She set her necklace down on her nightstand. "I know. I saw them depart, but thanks for informing me."

Klein observed. "Something's wrong." Weiss merely nodded in response. "What's on your mind?"

"I've been wondering to myself... is there any chance that Pyrrha Nikos could be alive? I've been wondering for weeks if my efforts to save her actually worked."

"Well..." Estelle began. "I've done a search around the city to see if any of my friends knew what happened to your friend."

She slowly turned to the maid. "And what did you discover?"

"It is... not good. From the few friends I have been able to contact, they have heard news about Pyrrha's whereabouts. According to what I have gathered, they said that Pyrrha had perished during the Fall of Beacon. Her body was never found, so there is a debate on how she died. Some say that she was too grief stricken after what happened in the Amity Colosseum and was eaten by a Grimm. Some say that she was assassinated, possibly by someone who believed she meant to murder Penny. Others say that she was horribly injured in battle and taken to a hospital but they couldn't save her in time."

"I was there when she was taken to Everbright hospital. She must not have made it." She sniffed. "Part of me didn't want to believe it, but the information gathered here is telling me what I feared to be true." Tears formed and started to fall down her face. "Pyrrha Nikos... has fallen."

"Weiss... I'm so sorry..." Weiss threw her arms around her, and sobbed into her arms. "I know.. It hurts..." Weiss sniffed. "If it helps you to feel any better, I too have lost a close friend in combat and never heard from her again. Maria Calavera disappeared long ago."

The heiress blinked, trying to get tears out of her eyes. "She did?"

"She disappeared decades ago. No one knows where she is or what became of her. She worked under an alias, she was a legend, but most of us have come to believe that she's dead."

"Who was she?"

Before she could answer, one of the servants, a young maid, came rushing to the door to Weiss's room. "Ah, Mr. Sieben, Mrs. Blanche, we require your assistance."

"What happened?" Estelle asked.

"Well, it's easier if I show you." the maid answered.

Klein and Estelle quickly sped off with the other servant, leaving the troubled heiress to her thoughts. Weiss let the tears fall, slowly cascading down her face and then, by force of gravity, found their way to the floor.

 _I failed... I have bitterly failed._ She fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands. _I'm sorry... So so sorry..._

* * *

Unbeknownst to the young heiress, and many others, Pyrrha was alive, as she and Jaune were getting on a boat. As they ascended the ramp up to the ship, they started talking among themselves.

Jaune smiled to himself. "I still can't believe that we were able to find a ship from here to the island of Patch, and at a good price."

Pyrrha looked sad. "I feel a bit guilty. The only reason we got a reduced rate per night is because the captain is a huge fan of me."

"Hey, that's good. It means one less person thinks you're evil."

"True..." She looked at the ocean below her. "I just hope there aren't too many people here. I'd rather not attract unnecessary attention." The two went from the main deck into the hallway where the cabins were. "A ferry from here to Kana. That's nearly three weeks of travel." Pyrrha noted. "Our expected day of arrival is December 20th, and from there it's another week of walking to Fiti, which means that we'll get to Fiti around December 27st."

Jaune opened the door to their cabin. "That's a long time of just sitting around."

"True, but in the meantime, we can try to figure out how to face Cinder and her allies. So let's review." Pyrrha sat down on the bed, got out a clipboard and a pencil and began writing. _"'Cinder Fall-Fall Maiden, highly dangerous. Has the semblance of glass manipulation, multiple weapons she can form from it including swords and bow and arrows. Extremely capable fighter, even without magic. Known to use fire magic, likely has other tricks up her sleeve as well...'_ "

"And I think we can safely assume that her use of magical powers is unlimited?"

"Most likely. _'Can utilize magical powers as much as she wants. Extremely powerful and difficult to defeat. Challenge at own risk. Emerald Sustrai- An illusionist, has the ability to create individual hallucinations. Also highly dangerous, but not as much as Cinder. Very capable fighter._ _Mercury Black- Moderately dangerous. As seen in the Vytal Festival Tournament, he has special boots allowing him to fire projectiles and dust at his opponents. Also could have metallic legs. Very capable fighter. Hmm...'_ "

"What about the 4th team member? Neopolitian... Glace they called her?"

"She wasn't present with Emerald and Mercury when we confronted them at Beacon."

"Maybe she's injured like Cinder supposedly is... or was. Or maybe the 4th teammate is dead."

She put the tip of the pen to her chin. "Or maybe she wasn't involved in their plans. She was never seen around Beacon Academy prior to the Vytal Festival Tournament and she was only with them for the team round. She might have been a hired stand in. Either way, we're not gonna worry about her unless she actually shows up."

"Good point. However, I do remember that Mercury and Emerald did mention someone named Watts. Who are they?"

"Watts... Hmm... That name sounds a bit familiar... I've not sure where I've heard it... But now that you mention it, the duo did say that they wished Watts was here to help them. He or she might be a hacker, or at least, has skill in hacking. _'Watts-Gender and real full name unknown. Has skills in hacking. Possibly other technological skills as well.'_ "

"That's all we know about our foes and potential enemies we could encounter in the future."

"Yeah, but if there's one person we barely know anything about, there could be more that we don't know about. The likelihood of them having other magic users is low, but then again, we'll have to be ready for anything. Best case scenario, there are no other mages. Worst case scenario, there's more than one mage."

Jaune faltered as he asked, "What's a mage?"

She wrote something down as she answered, "A mage is a magician, or a magic user."

"Well, mages, as you call them, they must be rare, right?"

"I would assume so..."

"Although if the Fall Maiden exists, is it possible that the other seasons exist?"

"Probably." She turned to him curiously. "Why do you ask?"

"What if all of them were in cohorts with each other, in some sort of evil league?"

"Don't say such things! That would be a nightmare!" Pyrrha exclaimed.

"Okay, forget I said that." He threw his back against the bed, sighing as his girlfriend put the clipboard, paper and pen to the side on a nightstand. "What are we getting into?"

She sat beside him. "We don't really even know, do we?"

"Perhaps we don't."

He secretly thought, _And that scares me._

* * *

Back on the Noire Armada ship, Blake, Sun and Xanthe were sailing the seas. As Blake stood in the captain's quarters, she looked at herself in the mirror. She wore long white tailcoat with dark gray lining and a sleeveless black crop top with rectangular and diamond-shaped cutouts around the neckline. Additionally, she wore a white belt over black fitted pants.

She then put on thigh-high black heeled boots with a white version of her emblem with gold-colored edging around the top, with the left boot having a belt wrapped twice around the thigh. Then she placed a diagonal strap containing a smaller magnetic clip across her torso to sheathe her weapon.

The new captain took the obvious valuables first- money, expensive jewelry, a gold key. She had taken everything out of the room, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw a book on the nightstand. It had a lock on it. She took the key she found earlier, put it in the slot and opened the lock. She took the book and opened it, reading the first page, written in big black letters-

 _Diary of Corvina Noire_

Curious, she flipped to the next page.

 _Dear diary,_

 _I just got this small little book today as a birthday present. Mom was so nice to get it for me. I guess now I have somewhere I can write my thoughts in. Mom got me this diary, dad got me a beautiful flower pendant. Real sliver. I can't believe it! I promise to wear it for the rest of my life, and if anyone tries to take it, they'll be hurt! The celebration was great! My favorite cake, presents and time with the family. I really am lucky to have such wonderful family. I guess that's all I have to say.  
_

 _Goodbye for now, diary_

The writing looked like it had been done by a five year old. Perhaps that was how old Corvina was when she received the diary. She flipped to a random page, wondering if she could find out what she had meant by "unspeakable horrors".

 _January 4th, 75 AGW_

 _Dear diary,_

 _It's been a few days since the new year began._ _It was a slightly chilly, not snowy day, fine for walking if you layered yourself to keep warm._ _Today, while taking my daily walk in the park, I saw this most handsome guy standing over there by a tree. He had white cream colored hair with blue eyes and fair skin. He was wearing black sweats, a white pullover hooded jacket and white cream colored gloves. He complimented me and said my lavender snow boots looked cute._

 _I said 'Thank you' to him and began speaking with him. We sat down under the tree and began a conversation with him. After about 20 minutes, I looked closely at him and noticed his sheep ears. He said he normally hides them in order to avoid being harassed and discriminated against, so that people wouldn't call him a freak. I said that I honestly didn't care, and that he wasn't a freak. I told him about my parents being judgemental, but that I didn't mind. A few minutes later, he said he had to go, so_ _he asked me for my number and asked me if I wanted to meet him at a cafe. I agreed and was about to continue on my normal path when asked for his name and I told him mine. His name was Marrok. Never gave a last name. Probably doesn't matter._

 _My parents would be frightened and angered that I befriended a faunus. I want to tell them, but I can't. For his sake and for mine. I least I can write down these thoughts where no one else can see them._

Blake thought to herself, _So this was before he betrayed her. Before she lost her mind... What really happened?_

Her thoughts were disrupted when she heard the door creaking open. The catgirl quickly put the diary away in her backpack as Sun opened the door. "Oh, there you are Blake." He smiled at her. "Lookin' mighty fine, captain."

Blake blushed at his compliment. "Aw, you're too kind." She looked at him curiously. "Have you looted the rest of the ship?"

"Yep! We've taken everything that can be used or sold and it is sitting on the main deck. We are ready to depart."

"Land ho, Captain Belladonna!" Xanthe announced from afar. "We'll be docking soon!"

"Looks like we've made it." Sun said. "So what are we doing with the prisoners?"

"Me and Xanthe have already discussed it." The two them went to the main deck. "The two of us will go on our quest as intended. Xanthe, however, will take Ivy to prison and the flag of the Noire Armada ship as proof their existence." As the two stood on the deck, all living prisoners, save for Ivy, cleared away and stored below deck. "Once that's done, Xanthe will sail out to sea, place the bomb on the ship, set the timer, and row away in a boat before the ship explodes. From there, he'll continue his quest."

"I don't like the idea of killing most of the prisoners, but..." Sun stated. "we really don't have much choice, do we?"

"No, we don't. Just look on the bright side, the blood won't be on your hands."

Sun nodded in agreement. "You'll never get away with this, you sons of bitches!" Ivy proclaimed, still struggling against ropes. "Especially you, Xanthe!" She craned her neck up to see him removing the flag from the ship. "You thought you could trick a captain/first mate and get away with it?! You're wrong! Dead wrong!"

After dropping the flag onto the deck below him, the Noire Armada Traitor climbed down the mainmast. Upon reaching the deck, he folded his arms and glared at the first mate. "Yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge, Greenie."

"Captain and first mate?" Sun asked. "I thought Corvina was the captain. Wha..."

"Ivy was the captain of this particular ship before Corvina stepped on board. Corvina often traveled from one ship to another to avoid capture. Whenever she stepped on the ship, she became the captain of said ship while still keeping the title of admiral of the Noire Armada and Ivy became the first mate." Xanthe elaborated.

"Alright, that makes sense."

Xanthe did a brief check for his important possessions; his wallet, scroll, water, spare food, and his frying pan. Then he docked the ship. "Here we are." He lowered the wooden ramp to the bridge before taking Ivy into his arms. Blake walked off with Sun in tow and behind him, the Noire Armada traitor carried Corvina's right hand woman down the big plank of wood. "It seems as though this is where we part ways. Farewell to thee, Blake and Sun. I wish you the best of luck in capturing and defeating Adam Taurus."

"Goodbye Xanthe. Thanks again for helping us out."

"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Goodbye and good luck."

"Thanks and no problem. Now to get this bitch to prison. If she can go for five minutes without screaming her head off..."

The two began to walk away as Ivy screamed, "You'll never get away with this! Neverrrr! Curse you, Blake Belladonna! And you too, you no good monkeyman!"

Blake and Sun continued forth, leaving the Noire Armada right hand and traitor behind them.

* * *

Several hours back on the ship, Jaune and Pyrrha were lying on the bed, making out with Jaune on top of Pyrrha. Her hand circled around his neck while the other one was pinned down by Jaune's hand, her knuckle against the white sheets. Pyrrha broke the kiss, gasping for air. "We shouldn't be doing this. We'll get distracted and forget our purpose."

Jaune smirked, giving her a quick kiss. "But is it a good distraction, or are we just trying to forget about the problem at hand?"

She gave him a smug grin. "What do you think?"

He kissed her again. "You are the perfect distraction." He kissed her again, sliding his hands down her buttocks to the backside of her legs. "You once mentioned that we could return the highly intimate acts we did in the apartment complex."

Pyrrha gave him a knowing smirk. "We could. Wouldn't it be considered... scandalous?"

"They can try to tell us what's right and what's wrong, but we know better..."

She inched away from him sadly and stood up. "There are also many that believe I'm a criminal who deserves to be imprisoned."

"But most people don't believe that's true."

She sat down, hanging her legs over the bed and looking down in despair. "They think I'm dead. Sometimes I wonder if I'll have the courage to admit that I'm not dead and publicly appear without my cloak ever again." She sighed. "Thank the gods that there are few people on this ferry."

He gave her a curious look. "How many people are on this ship?"

She turned her neck to answer him, "According to what the captain told me, only 50 or so."

"That's not many at all." He looked around at the light blue walls of the room. "If we were to commence with this, do you think anyone would hear us?"

She shifted to being on her knees and gave him a devilish smirk. "Maybe. But even then, would they even know that it is specifically us?"

"Hmm..." Jaune kicked off his shoes and Pyrrha followed his lead. The Arc warrior proceeded to remove the armor and cloth Pyrrha wore and the gladiator girl proceeded to remove his shirt. She hastily removed her skirt, slipping it down her legs. He undid the button and zipper keeping his jeans up and took them off.

"Anxious, are we?"

They continued stripping themselves down,

"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

Without further hesitation, he entered her, going through her with his mansword. She bucked her hips in response to his motion and he responded by moving even faster. As his semen went into her, he kissed her more passion than before. Gosh, he wanted her. He didn't think it was wrong, or scandalous.

As he thought this, suddenly Rouge's words came straight to his mind as if they were being whispered in his ear.

"You've been naughty."

"...you try seduce one of the most gifted warriors in the whole world."

He broke his kiss and stared at Pyrrha's face.

 _If Rouge criticized me for this, then she doesn't even know what this feeling is like._

The thought left his mind as quickly as it entered. Rouge was wrong. About him, about Pyrrha, about everything she had said.

"Is something wrong?"

He didn't realize he slowed down and left Pyrrha, fluids dripping in between her legs. He sighed and answered, "Rouge's words are hunting me again. Even when she's not here, it feels like she's trying guilt trip me."

She cupped his face with her hands. "I told you, her words mean nothing. Your eldest sister is the worst."

The red-haired warrior kissed him, her tongue snaking towards his. He smiled, now reassured by her words. "You're right. Thanks for reassuring me."

He thrust his pelvis towards her once again and she hastened his pace to match with his. They were in heaven. But secretly, they knew it wouldn't last. They both dismissed these thoughts at once, shoving them to the side as they lay entangled with each other. Jaune looked at his partner; his girlfriend, the love of his life, his best friend. If they were going into the dark, he would follow her. If Pyrrha was going to go through hell, chasing after Cinder and her cohorts, then Jaune would be right there with her. If she was going to burn, he would burn with her.


	37. Living a Lie

Live and Die, Living a Lie/Justify

* * *

Estelle Blanche looked at the pile of letters on her desk and sighed. "Why hasn't she answered me?" she asked the empty air. The elderly woman got up and started to roam the manor. As she passed through the winter colored halls, she came across the glass double door leading to the gardens. She stopped for a moment and pressed her face up against the glass to see if Willow Schnee was drinking, and not much to her surprise, she was. Believing she was alone, she sighed to herself and said, "Sometimes it feels like everything is just getting worse."

"Estelle?" the familiar voice of Weiss asked.

Estelle turned to face Weiss and her follow servant, Klein. The elderly maid took note of Weiss's change in appearance- the young huntress wore a short dress with a sweetheart neckline and a color gradation of blue to pale blue at the hem and a white, tulle petticoat under the skirt. A white ribbon was wrapped multiple times around her waist, and over the outfit was a slightly sheer long-sleeved blue shrug with the Schnee Crest fastened at the collar with a large sapphire broach that has three dangling pendants. To complete the outfit, she wore dark blue wedge heels and sapphire drop earrings.

The butler asked, "Is something wrong? Aside from Willow drinking almost endlessly?"

The elderly maid sighed. "My eldest granddaughter hasn't responded and I sent out a letter to her over four weeks ago."

"Do you think it's possible that the messenger you hired died in the line of duty?"

"That shouldn't be possible. I hired a first class messenger!"

"First class?" Weiss asked.

"Yes. First class. You know how delivering messages has become a dangerous, popular and potentially lucrative field?" Estelle asked the semi pro huntress. Weiss nodded in understanding. "Well, there are two different kinds of messengers; second class and first class. Second class messengers refer to messengers who are mainly motivated by greed. They're doing this for money, and usually have failed to take into consideration all the dangers of being a messenger or are ignoring those dangers. Most second class messengers are ordinary civilians, oftentimes with very little to no combat experience. They travel unarmed and they are more likely to die while delivering messages. However, since they're seen as more expandable by society, they often charge less.

"First class messengers on the other hand, know what they're getting into, have a significant amount of combat experience and most of them carry weapons to defend themselves and others. These are usually huntsman academy students, trained fighters or sometimes even professional huntsmen and huntresses. They know how risky it is to be a messenger and have prepared themselves accordingly. As a result, they're a lot less likely to die when delivering messages, but they oftentimes charge more than a second class messenger. So when it comes to hiring one, here's the question you need to ask yourself- do you want to hire cheaply on the possibility that your message probably won't be delivered, or go for someone more reliable at a higher cost?"

"I see. And how long does someone have to practice combat in order to be significant?"

"The definition of significant combat experience varies from one community to another, but from what I've gathered, most people agree on a minimum ranging from two to five years worth. Basically, they have to be good enough to face the Grimm and survive." She sighed. "I payed them 550 Lien... and that's the lower end of first class messaging."

"Maybe your granddaughter sent out a cheaply hired messenger who didn't make it back here." Weiss suggested. "I can easily imagine that she's not rich and that she might not have the means to hire a good messenger."

"That is true." She looked out the window. "Even if I don't hear from her again, I just hope she's alright."

* * *

Yang looked at the seventh draft of her letter to Tangerine. Her hand writing had improved slightly.

 _Dear (Tang)erine,_

She quickly crossed it out, then discarded the paper. She began another draft.

What was she going to say to her?

 _Dear Tang,_

 _I have distressing news to report. Beacon Academy has fallen. How did this happen? Well...  
_

She sighed and crumbled up the paper, tossing the wad into the trashcan. The former brawler started another draft.

 _Dear Tangerine,_

 _ _ _I'm afraid I have distressing news to report. The Vytal Festival Tournament was crushed. Pyrrha was facing an opponent named Penny Polendina. Penny was an android with an aura, but no one realized it until it was too late. During the match, Pyrrha unintentionally used her semblance polarity and accidentally tore her metal body into pieces.  
___

She looked at another part of the letter.

 _ _During the chaos, I saw my teammate Blake being attacked by an unknown White Fang member. I lost my right arm...__ _ _ _I know that hearing about my injures is depressing, but I can't lie to you.  
___

Yang looked at the 13th draft. It was okay, but she still felt it wasn't good enough.

"Hey Yang." He carried a tea tray in his hands and poured her a cup. "How's the response going?"

She put the pencil down and took the cup in her hand before looking down sadly. "I feel like all my drafts so far just don't get the entire message."

"Then be honest. Don't try to hide anything from her. I know it's not going to be easy to tell her about the tragedy, but she needs to hear the truth."

"Do you think that Jaune told her what happened?"

"I don't know. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. He might not have had the heart to tell her. Don't assume that she knows anything and, I know this might sound silly, but, speak from the heart."

"Thanks for the advice." Yang looked at him with a neutral expression. "I'll... I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

Meanwhile, in a forest outside of Argus, a young woman appeared anxious as she looked at her attire- a long white sleeved blouse, black dress pants and black polished work shoes. She put on a brown ribbon to hide her cat ears.

"Perfect. No one will be the wiser." Athena told the girl before she came into her line of sight.

Tawny looked as nervous as a sinner in church. "Oh... Are you sure that I'm capable of doing this? What if I can't pull this off? What if they discover I'm a fake? What if I'm caught? What if I'm thrown behind bars like you were?!"

"Calm down!" She looked around to make sure no one heard her shout before giving her a firm, yet reassuring look. Her brown eyes meet Tawny's green. "Look Tawny, I know you're scared, and you have good reason to be, but let me reassure you that this plan will not fail. I am certain that you are capable of doing this. I've created your transcript, I had you read it to me several times over to aid you in memorizing it, and with the CCT tower in Beacon down, they won't be easily able to verify your references. While is it unfortunate that the CCT is gone, we can take this quandary and use it to our advantage. Just remember what I taught you. Do you remember the rules I taught you for the interview?"

She took a black hair bow and put her brown hair into a bun. "Display confidence during the interview, bring your poker face instead of a smile since this is a very serious profession, and don't lie any more than you have to."

"Good. Now, remember what I told you and you'll be fine. I will be waiting out here in the trees to avoid being spotted by vigilantes. Do you remember the signal we will use to meet up again?"

"Ca-caw! Ca-caw!"

"Excellent. When you return and call out that signal, I will repeat it so you can find me. I know that luck can only take you so far, but I wish you good luck during this interview."

She bowed her head in respect. "Thanks, Lady Athena."

 _I'm going to need it._

The young recruit walked forth from the forest and into the city of Argus. Light snowfall caked the buildings of the city. She looked back briefly, seeing the highest tower of Sanctum Academy in the distance on top of a mountain above the main part of the city. Tawny breathed in and walked forward, and even saw a newspaper on the ground and picked it up.

 **Athena Escapes From Argus Harbor Max Security Prison**

She tossed it aside. It just told her what she already knew. After trekking through the cobblestone streets of Argus, she walked forth to the trolley and hopped on. When the trolley took off, she began to look around. In the distance, heard the sound of bells ringing and a few feet later, saw a woman with long dark brown hair in a bun and eyes to match. When she squinted her eyes, she saw a single smooth bang going down her forehead. She tucked it to the side and adjusted her red glasses. The woman wore an empire line wedding dress with a veil as she stood outside the cathedral.

As the bride faded from her view, Tawny turned her attention to the large building in front her- Argus Harbor Max Security Prison. This massive dark grey twenty-seven story building had a huge stone wall about five stories tall with only one entrance. The entrance was guarded by three guards and had a station for confiscated items to be stored. She breathed in to steady herself and at the right moment, hopped off the train. She stood up straight and walked forth to the gate as calmly as she could.

"Hello, sirs. I'm here for the interview."

"Identify yourself." the first guard ordered.

"Tawny Lemongrass."

The second guard looked at a portfolio with a few papers inside it. "Yes, we received your letter and transcript approximately three days ago. Unfortunately, you still have to get through basic security measures. Do you have any weapons on you? If so, you will need to hand them over to us."

Tawny got out her dagger and held it in her hands. "I was forewarned about this." She handed it to the guard. "Here you go."

"Thank you. You may enter."

The gates were opened and Tawny entered the prison, walking forth with the guards behind her, watching her every move.

"I will guide you to our warden, Mr. Cumin." the third guard said.

Tawny suddenly felt very nervous.

 _Why did I agree to this? I'm living a lie. I know this is for a good cause, but... can I really justify my actions?_ She internally sighed to herself. _There's no turning back now._

"Here you are. Mr. Cumin will be here shortly. Wait for him to arrive before you enter."

The guards left her there at the entrance, standing and waiting for the warden. She looked around and saw a few empty prison cells as her eyes scanned the dark grey walls. The overhead lights were dimmed.

 _I wonder where my cohorts are. Will any of them recognize me in my prison guard outfit once I get the job? You mean if you get the job. What if something goes wrong?_

"Ms. Lemongrass?" a buff voice asked, disrupting her thoughts. Warden Cumin. Tawny nodded in response. "Take a seat."

She sat down in the wooden chair before his desk.

* * *

After twenty one attempts at writing the response, Yang read to herself the final, finished draft.

 _Dear Tangerine,_

 _I'm sorry for not being able to respond to your letter sooner. Everything has crumbled into pieces. It's a long story on what exactly happened. A few months ago, during the Vytal Festival, during my match with Mercury Black, after he had been eliminated, I thought I saw him attempting to attack me, but in reality, he was just being friendly. I never meant to do any serious harm, and I don't know what caused me to see Mercury attacking me when he really wasn't. I do hope that you don't believe what the critics are saying about me. Unfortunately, I was disqualified for this. I had hoped that incident would be the only bad thing happening in the Vytal Festival._

 _Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. In the following round of the Vytal Festival, Pyrrha unintentionally caused the death of Penny Polendina. Unbeknownst to the general public until her death, Penny was an android with an aura, or more simply put, a robot with a soul. She unintentionally used her semblance, polarity, to devastating magnitude that crushed her metal body and tore it into pieces. Shortly thereafter, the broadcast was hijacked by an unknown woman who condemned the headmasters of the huntsman academies and the government, causing fear and negative emotions to spike, attracting Grimm to the Colosseum and the city. This event started what is known as the Fall of Beacon. During the ensuing chaos, we were attacked by the forces of Grimm, the White Fang, and Atlas military drones, which I highly suspect were hijacked._

 _During that chaos, I saw my teammate and best friend, Blake, attacked by an unnamed White Fang elitist. Hearing her cry out in pain, I felt my rage spike, my semblance ignite and burn in fury, so I charged towards him, ready to take him down, and then the next thing I know, I feel unbearable pain, my aura fading, and me falling unconscious. That unbearable pain... was me losing most of my right arm._

 _When I awoke again, I was on a bullhead heading to a safe place in the city._ _I slipped in and out of consciousness for several minutes until we got to the safehouse. They took account of everyone there and everyone who was staying there. My wounds were tended to by a student from Beacon and me and Blake choose to stay there in hopes that our teammates would return. But come next morning, Blake was gone. Sun saw her go and attempted to stop her, but to no avail._ _Me and an unconscious Ruby were taken home by our dad and_ _I later learned from my uncle Qrow that Weiss was taken back to Atlas by her father shortly after the fall. Nothing has ever been the same._ _Adjusting to having only my left arm to use has been immensely difficult._ _I know the world is slowly falling apart around me, but to tell you the truth, I barely even notice because it feels like my world just suddenly collapsed on me._

 _Writing this letter was no easy task, and I really hope that this message reaches you. If you don't get this or don't respond, I probably won't write back. If you can, please respond. I feel so lonely, and not even my family can comfort me. I feel like can't even speak with Ruby, nor my father, and... ugh?! Why did Blake just abandon us without warning?! How could she do this?! ... My apologies for lashing out. It's not your fault. This wasn't the first time Blake disappeared, but after what happened the first time, I hoped and I prayed, that it would be the last. Who knows where she is now..._

 _I know that hearing of my current state will be a hard pill to swallow, but I can't ask you to mourn and grieve for me for too long. You have criminals to catch for cash, and I know that eventually, on your 22nd birthday or shortly thereafter, you will be taking your huntress license exam. I wish you good luck in all your endeavors and that one day your family be free from debt. And if I had to give you one piece of advice, never, ever let your temper get the better of you. That's ultimately what cost me my arm, and I don't want to see that happen to you._

 _Your eternally depressed friend, Yang_

 _PS- Sorry I forgot about sending you a birthday text message. Happy belated birthday, Tang._

The former brawler faintly smiled to herself. Taiyang smiled, "It looks good, clearly readable, and you're being completely honest."

 _Hopefully it'll actually get to her._ Yang thought.

* * *

Athena sat up in a tree, hidden from view from all others.

"Ca-caw! Ca-caw!"

"Ca-caw!"

Tawny ran in the direction of the sound and found where Athena hid herself among the trees.

The winged faunus smiled at her. "Well done. So how did it go?"

"I got the job."

"Excellent work, Tawny. Now, I will give you the plans." She gave a parchment scroll to the newly hired prison guard and began looking it over as Athena spoke to her. "The first thing you are to, is to waken their defenses. Do it slowly. Some of the prisoners may recognize you. You are not to address them by their name, as you must blend in and keep up the ruse. If the guards and/or Warden Cumin discover about your forgery, they will likely throw you in the slammer or worse. If things go really south, then flee the prison, and the city as quick as you can. You would not be able to fight all the guards and the warden. If you get imprisoned, send a message in code to the following address."

Athena wrote an address on a slip of paper. Tawny looked at it and nodded in comprehension before pocketing the slip. "Got it."

"You're going to be on your own for several weeks or months, and without the CCT, communication will be limited in between White Fang messengers. As you may have noticed on the parchment, I have a few White Fang spies in the city that you can contact for help, but try to save it for emergencies if you can help it. So good luck. You're gonna need it."

The newly hired guard reached her hand out to say something, but Athena took to the skies, flying away before Tawny could protest.

 _What did I just agree to?_ she thought to herself.


	38. Workin 9 to 5

Author's Notes:

-Wow, 200 followers and counting. Thanks guys!

-I apologize for this chapter being late. Luckily you won't have to wait so long for the next one. Who knew trying to write a slice of life chapter would be so difficult?

Now then, let's get rolling!

* * *

Nora and Ren walked into Beachside News, the former looking at the calendar on the wall nearby the entrance to the employee lounge. November 18th. It was day two of the internship. The two former Beacon Academy students were trying to adjust to civilian life. So far most their duties consisted of editing and/or looking over final drafts, minimal tasks such as janitor work, and occasionally, making and bringing coffee to the writers.

Nora looked at the clock, the minute hand on the nine and the hour hand on the eight. "Well we're here early."

"Yes we are. But we can use that time wisely. Rita needs her cup of coffee, and with the usual secretary gone, it seems us two interns are the replacements."

"Rita... Wasn't her last name Seeker?"

"No, it's Rita Kin. Where did you get that idea?" Nora shrugged. Ren shrugged it off and proceeded to start up the coffee machine. He grabbed a white ceramic mug, pressed a few buttons and within a few minutes, a cup of coffee had been freshly brewed. He took a small package of cream and poured it in, then stirred it with a small rod. He smiled to himself. "Perfect." A woman with blondish white hair and blue eyes came up to them. Upon her arrival, Ren handed the cup to her. "Your coffee, Ms. Kin. No sugar, a little cream."

"Ah, thank you Mr. Ren, and you've memorized how I like it. Most secretaries get it wrong consistently." She blew on the steaming hot beverage before taking a small sip before walking away.

"It feels strange hearing the word mister in front of your name."

Ren faintly smiled. "It's not the only strange thing here."

"Now Mr. Black said that we have to do... how many days of work to complete our internships?"

"Twenty-eight days. This is day two." He chuckled to himself. "Never thought we'd be working 9-5 job."

The clock struck nine. Nora looked at her partner in crime. "Guess we better get started then."

The two went off to their separate stations and looked at files on flashdrives that they were given.

* * *

 **Day 7**

Ren looked over a draft on the word processing program.

 _It seeems that many blame Atlas for the Fall of Beacon, but Glydna Goodwitch argues that this is nott the case._ _ _A staf member at Beacon for nearly thirty years, she said she saw_ _General Ironwood during the Fall of Beacon as the two of them and many others fought against the forces of Grimm. Goodwitch says that he id not responsible for the Atlas military drones attacking the school, which rises the question- if he is not responsible, who is?__

He clicked the mouse in various parts of the paragraph to fix the spelling and grammer errors so that it read- _It seems that many blame Atlas for the Fall of Beacon, but Glydna Goodwitch argues that this is not the case. A staff member at Beacon for nearly thirty years, she said she saw_ _General Ironwood during the Fall of Beacon as the two of them and many others fought against the forces of Grimm. Goodwitch says that he is not responsible for the Atlas military drones attacking the school, which raises the question- if he is not responsible, who is?  
_

The young ninja wrote on a sticky note- _Add "Beacon Academy professor" before Glynda Goodwitch, and "in the streets of Vale" after Grimm_ as a form of advice for the writer, smiling to himself after placing said sticky note on the desk.

Nora was looking over a draft as well. _Many are wondering who specificaly is responsible for the Fall of Beacon. One of the suspects is a faunus by the name of_ _Adam Taurus. Taurus has been on the run since the Fall of Beacon. No one knows where he is, and little is known about what he looks like, but thanks to an anonymous entry, we have a rough hand sketch of what he looks like._

In the middle of the draft, there was a hand drawn picture of Adam Taurus next to that same hand drawn image, colorized in paint to further visualize how the criminal could look in real life. Probably to be set up in the middle of the front page of the newspaper.

 _It is currrently advised to leave hunting him down to the authorities. He is said to be armed and dangerous._

She made some edits.

The images went untouched but the final draft now read- _Many are wondering who specifically is responsible for the Fall of Beacon. One of the many suspects is a bull horned faunus by the name of_ _Adam Taurus. Taurus has been on the run since the Fall of Beacon. No one knows where he is, and little is known about what he looks like, but thanks to an anonymous entry, we have a rough hand sketch of what he looks like._ _It is currently advised to leave hunting him down to the authorities, as he is said to be armed and highly dangerous._

She smiled to herself with her work.

* * *

 **Day 15**

Nora was running a tray with piles of papers back and forth from place to place, including the writer's area, the office and through the halls. She unintentionally ran into Mr. Black, causing papers to fly everywhere. He gave her a glare, so she nervously giggled. She quickly got up from the ground and picked up the papers as best as she could.

Ren took the mop, dipped it into the bucket and started to mop the floor of the bathroom. He sighed to himself as he mopped the floors. He then saw the yellow sign he forgot to put up and sighed. He put up the wet floor sign and continued mopping.

* * *

 **Day 19**

Ren and Nora were looking over drafts. Ren opened the third file on the flashdrive and began reading. It was a short file on the update of an outlaw's bounty.

 _Mistralian White Fang leader Maura Celandine has been on the run ever since the Storming of Sanctum Academy. Many people in Mistral are seeking her out to bring her to justice. A small few foreigners from outside the kingdom have come to bring her to justice. The price on her head is now 150,000 Lien._

Perfect. No errors.

* * *

 **Day 22**

Ms. Kin was receiving her cup of coffee from Ren. She took the mug from him and took a sip, carefully sipping on the steaming hot liquid to try and not burn her tongue. She smiled and gave Ren an expression of approval.

Ren and Nora were giving copies of drafts to be printed onto the printing press, smiling as several copies of newspapers were made.

* * *

December 27th. It had been the 28th day of their internship. If they could make it through the end of the day, they would be able to get out of internships and get real jobs.

"Well, just one more day to go." Ren smiled.

"Yes! Real jobs, here we come!" Nora exclaimed.

"Nora, keep your voice down."

She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

"AHH!"

"What was that?!" Rita asked in alarm.

"Sounds like trouble. From the office!" Ren exclaimed, taking Nora by the hand as they ran in the sound of the scream. The flower power duo ran to Mr. Black's office. Nora shook off his grasp, ran forth, and kicked down the door only to find...

She gasped in horror. "No..."

He was dead. Blood dripped from his skull onto the floor. The name tag with the name Nero Black had been crushed into pieces on the ground. The duo of cloaked assassins stood in the office, a slender one in black and a bulky one in white. The black cloaked assassin held a knife, blood dripping in droplets onto the floor below them.

Ren was so shocked he was speechless.

Outraged, Nora asked, "Who are you?!"

"That is for us to know, and for you to never find out, little Valkyrie." the black cloaked assassin answered in a feminine voice.

 _Little Valkyrie? Who is this woman and how does she...?_

Ren got out and started to fire his weapons at the black cloaked fiend, only for him to be grabbed at the neck with a huge deep-skinned hand belonging to the white cloaked fiend and thrown into the wall. Upon hearing him thrown against the wall, her train of thought was disrupted and she watched in terror as he fell helplessly to the ground, his weapons clattering against the wall before hitting the ground.

"Ren!" She ran over to and knelt by his side. He wasn't bleeding, but he was outcold. Still, he looked lifeless. A tear fell down her cheek and she began charging herself with electricity. "No one hurts my Ren!"

Pink lightning surged through her muscles and she charged towards the white cloaked killer, getting out Magnhild as she ran. She swung her hammer right into his chest, sending him flying right through the wall, destroying it and knocking him on his stomach into the ground.

As the employees witnessed the scene, the white cloaked fiend's hood fell down, revealing short white hair underneath. They quickly pulled the cloak back up and got up, looking at the terrified witnesses before the black cloaked killer ordered, "Don't just stand there! Get her!"

"Does the electricity surging around her not concern you?!" the white cloaked killer asked in a masculine voice.

What she didn't realize was that the lightning surrounding her spread to the electrical plugs in the wall outlets. As the plugs short-circuited from electric overload, they soon caught on fire and the place began to burn. The office caught on fire as Nora charged towards the white cloaked killer, sending him flying right through the glass revolving door, shattering it into pieces. The office workers swiftly fled the building as it started to burn.

He swiftly got up from the sidewalk and gasped as the building was on the fire.

"We have to get out of here!" the black cloaked fiend exclaimed.

The white cloaked fiend threw his accomplice over his shoulder and ran off with her. Nora was about to pursue them, but...

"Nora!" Ren called out.

She gasped in relieved surprise. "Ren!" She collapsed her hammer, stowed it away and threw her arms around Ren. "Oh, Ren, I'm so glad you're okay!"

He returned the embrace before he widened his eyes as he heard a sound. A siren, coming closer and closer... "Uh, Nora..."

The police showed up with three cars, along with two ambulances and a fire truck.

"Oh no..." Nora said.

Police _Do Not Cross_ type was made around the area. Mr. Black's deceased body was lifted into an ambulance by a worker as fire fighters worked to put out the fighters. Another ambulance was seen with injured spectators. Xanthe watched the ordeal from afar as Ren and Nora were interrogated by the police.

"I don't understand. Why would anyone target Mr. Black?" Nora asked the officer. "He never did anything wrong."

"It is said that Mr. Nero Black was once part of a group called the Noire Armada." he answered. "At least, that's what some people claimed about him."

"What? No, that... that just sounds crazy." Nora said.

"Do you even know what the Noire Armada is?"

Nora nodded her head. "No? Why, who are they?"

"According to local rumor, the Noire Armada is a human supremacist group. Originally created to stop the White Fang, but they shifted to the desire to kill all faunus. It is rumored that they sail the seven seas to hunt faunus down and some even say that they spread anti-faunus propaganda via news networks. Some argue that the Noire Armada doesn't exist at all."

"But even if the Noire Armada exists, is it really possible that Mr. Black could have been secretly involved with them?" Ren asked.

"We'll have to verify the claims. If the Noire Armada is real and as dangerous as they say, then they must be stopped. Now then, Mr. Ren and Ms. Valkyrie. Tell us what happened."

Ren and Nora told them, honestly, everything that happened. They were not found to be at fault for any of the events. The cops turned away from them, spoke to each other for a while before entering their cars and driving away. Upon their departure, Xanthe ran off. Nora and Ren sighed sadly and walked away as the scene transitioned to them walking through the forest sadly.

"Well... that wasn't supposed to happen." Ren said.

"I can't believe it. All that hard work to try and become normal civilized people with real jobs just went right down the toilet..." Nora sadly groaned. "Could this day get any worse?"

"Please don't say that."

The two went back to their treehouse. The two climbed up the ladder and entered through the trapdoor entrance. After shutting the trapdoor, Nora plopped herself onto the couch, her legs hanging over the edge of the couch. Ren slumped down on the other end of the couch. "I will admit, this day has gone less than well."

Nora lifted her leg up slightly, folded her arms and gave her partner in crime a questioning look. "Ren, stop trying to sugar coat it. This day sucks."

He sighed. "Who am I kidding? It does." He sat there silently for a moment. "I was just trying to find a silver lining." A knock was heard on the trapdoor. The orange haired warrior suddenly sprung up from the couch, her weapon in hand as Ren got up and put his fists up. "Who goes there?" Ren asked defensively.

"Nora? Ren?" a familiar feminine voice called out. "It's Pyrrha. And Jaune!"

The door slowly opened as the two climbed in and entered the treehouse. Ren smiled at his other two teammates. "Well long time no see."


	39. Who You Gonna Call?

Qrow was sitting and drinking at the Crow Bar, which surprisingly, still remained intact and undamaged in anyway. He lifted the beer glass to his lips and took another sip before setting the glass down. The bartender watched on before looking at the two empty glasses beside him.

"Are you okay?" the bartender asked.

The drunkard sighed, not really giving him an answer. The bartender bowed his head in respect to General Ironwood.

"General Ironwood?" Qrow asked more than slightly buzzed.

As he entered, the stoic look on his face shifted to an exasperated expression before looking at both Qrow and the bartender perplexed. "You're still here? I thought this place would have closed."

"You would think, but a small crowd of locals try to drown out their sorrows by coming here. I know, I've seen it get crowded on weekend nights. Right now it's not so bad."

The bartender faintly yet slowly smiled. "I actually owe him. He's kept my business afloat. He's like a good charm!"

Qrow thought to himself, _Oh little does he know that I'm the exact opposite.  
_

He took a sip, finishing off the third glass. "Care to join me general?"

"I don't care for drinking, but I do wish to speak with you." The general turned to the bartender. "Do you mind if I speak with Qrow and trust you not to repeat anything I say here to anyone else?"

"Sure! Just pretend I'm not even here!"

The bartender took a few steps back to clean the glasses that he had not yet cleaned from earlier. Ironwood grimaced as he looked at the empty glasses. "Three full beers. This does not look like a good sign."

He was given another glass by the bartender. "You can make that argument."

"Is there... something going on or are you just depressed in general?"

"Both. Two terrible things happened along with the general malaise."

"I know it is none of my business, but if you are willing to answer, what are those two things?"

"The first was bringing the preserved-as-best-as-I-could corpse of Amber Scarlett back to her family and explaining what happened to them. Trying to get her to them was physically draining as it was emotionally. Eventually, I got there, told them what happened and since her body was already decaying, they decided to cremate her. I don't know what was done with her ashes. As you can well imagine, they were devastated. Not only did they learn of her death, they had been kept in the dark. Ozpin never told them anything. For an entire year they had been worrying, kept out of the loop, and now she's dead. As for the second thing... it is a lot worse."

The general gave the drunkard a questioning, confused look. "I am having trouble seeing what could be worse than bringing the corpse of a maiden back to her family and explaining how she's been put out of commission for over twelve months died and how she died. Let me guess, Grimm destroyed an entire village as well?"

"No, it's worse. Yang lost most of her right arm."

Ironwood looked visibly downcast. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Taiyang was devastated. Ruby's tried reaching out to her, but Yang just pushes everyone away. I've hardly even seen her since she suffered from her loss." He took another sip of his beer. "Now you can see why I like to come here."

"You can't keep drinking like this all night. This is the fourth glass if I'm not mistaken. You can't drown your sorrows in alcohol."

"I can try."

"Don't you have important things to do? Such as finding Ozpin's successor?"

"We don't know who that is or where he is. Heck, it's possible that a new vessel hasn't even been chosen yet."

Ironwood sighed. "How long does this process take?"

"According to what Ozpin once confided in me, the shortest amount of time for finding a successor has been two months. The longest was two years."

"Oh boy... So in other words, his successor could be trying to adjust to the situation and accept his destiny, or he hasn't even been chosen and won't be for a long time."

"Pretty much. How are things going with you by the way?"

"Not well. Many people outside the city, Beacon Academy and even a small few in Atlas incorrectly think the Fall of Beacon is my fault. One of them is trying to get me off the council. Obviously, with my two seats on the council and others to vouch for me, that won't work, but it does nothing to help the situation at hand. The remains of Penny have been gathered up and returned to her creator. He devastated was upon seeing his little girl sent back to him in a box." An alarm went off on his scroll and he looked at the time. "Shoot. I should have been at my ship on my way to Atlas now. The Atlesian Council is having an important meeting to discuss what we will do from here about the Fall of Beacon. I have to get going. Goodbye, Qrow." He started to walk away, before stopping to ask, "You are going to cut back on drinking, right?"

"If it helps you feel better, this is my last one today." Ironwood walked away to find his ship. As soon as he was out of earshot, Qrow asked, "Could you get me a bottle of Merlot to go?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in that same city, mostly ruins were seen as the cat and the monkey were roaming the devastated city.

"So, remind me, why are we stopping here again?" Sun asked.

"For a few supplies." Blake answered. "We need more food, some more water, and since Corvina tore it to shreds, a new bow to hide my ears." She held on to the top of her hat that she took from the captain with her right hand briefly. "Eventually this hat will get lost or be blown off, and I'd rather not have my cat ears visible when that happens."

"Fair point."

The two stopped at a cracked crossway with a street lamp. Blake handed something to sun. "Here's 20 Lien. That should be more than enough for one ribbon, although with Vale becoming a near ghost town, prices may have gone up. You get the ribbons and I'll get the food and water. Meet back here in thirty minutes."

The two went their separate ways to get supplies. Blake took only twenty minutes to get her stuff so she was left waiting for a while. A long while. Another twenty minutes had passed. Where was he?

"Blake, over here!" Sun called from the other direction.

"Ah there you are! What took you so long? I was starting to get worried."

Sun hid his hands behind his back. "It took me forever to find a store selling ribbons. Well I got good news and bad news. The bad news, I couldn't find any black ribbons." Blake frowned. "Good news, I found a lot of other colors."

He got out the ribbons from behind his back. His girlfriend looked at his hands as he tightly held the ribbons- they were white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, gold and silver. She looked at him, slightly dumbfounded. "You got me a bunch of ribbons?"

"They had every color but black. They were supposed to get another shipment, but it never arrived at the store, so I bought as many as I could." he explained.

"Aw, you're too kind. I wouldn't think that you would willingly and eagerly do something like this."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you always thought I looked better without the bow."

"Look, I know you aren't comfortable letting the world know you're a faunus, and I respect your desire to keep it secret. Besides, now you got your choice of bows and several backup bows." Sun held out the ribbons to his girlfriend. "Pick whichever one you want." Blake took the white ribbon out of his left hand and wrapped it around her cat ears to conceal them. "Good choice! It goes well with your tailcoat!"

Blake smiled. "Aw thanks." She then took Corvina's hat in her hands and tossed it aside. "Now come, we better get going to Mountain Glen."

* * *

"Well long time no see." Ren remarked.

Jaune waved. "Hi... Nice to see you guys."

"Jaune! Pyrrha! Man, am I glad to see you guys!" She threw her arms around the two of them, giving them a big bear hug. "I missed you so much!"

Pyrrha gasped for breath. "Nora... Can't breathe..."

"Oh, sorry!" She let them go. "I wasn't expecting you! What brings you here?"

"We need your help."

"With what exactly?"

"Me and Jaune are traveling to Haven Academy in Mistral to face Cinder, the woman responsible for the Fall of Beacon, and her allies and stop them once and for all. I made a promise to Penny that I would find the ones responsible for her death and bring an end to their evil ways."

"Sounds like you guys need all the help you can get." Ren turned to his partner in crime. "Nora, are you ready and willing to help them in their quest?"

"Sure thing!"

Ren suggested, "We might want to get more allies."

"Who you gonna call?" Nora asked.

"And who would be willing to aid us?" Jaune asked.

"What about team CFVY?" Pyrrha suggested.

"Can't, they transferred to Shade."

Ren mused to himself silently for a moment or two. "I know none of us really like them, but what about team CRDL?"

Jaune frowned, folding his arms. "No way. Didn't I tell you that they insulted and mocked me and Pyrrha after she got out of the hospital?"

"And besides," Pyrrha began. "I thought they went to Atlas Academy."

"Really?" Nora raised an eyebrow. "I thought they went to Haven." The valkyrie folded her arms. "Either way, that idea's tossed out the window." She smiled again. "Oh! We could try some of our friends, like team RWBY."

"But they've split up after the fall of Beacon." Pyrrha mentioned.

"Weiss is in Atlas, and something tells me that she probably wouldn't be allowed to leave the manor." Jaune theorized.

"We don't even know what happened to Blake after she ran away." Ren added. "And Yang isn't in any shape to fight."

"But Ruby might be able to help." Nora added.

"You really think she'd be willing to join us for our mission? I mean, she's probably very depressed with the events that happened. And even before..." Pyrrha began.

"But she knows it's not your fault that her friend Penny was murdered. I'm sure she wants answers as to who's pulling the strings." Jaune answered. "And we already have some of those answers. I think Ruby could help us."

The mostly silent warrior nodded. "I suppose it's worth a shot. Does anyone know where Ruby lives?"

"Hmm..." Nora mused to herself. "I think she told me where her place was one night when we were getting manis before the Beacon Dance. I know it's in Patch. I remember now- 7513 Thunder Road! Shouldn't be horribly far from here."

"Then we leave tomorrow morning." Ren said. "It's been a long day and I'm in no mood to go anywhere right now."

"So where are we gonna sleep?" Pyrrha asked.

The lotus warrior widened his eyes in realization before turning to his other teammates. "Oh yeah, there's only two hammocks used for beds. We're not really used to having company."

Jaune looked at the couch in the living room. "Rock paper scissors for the couch?"

"We could try and share the couch." Pyrrha suggested.

Jaune found himself blushing yet again. But why? It wasn't like they had never slept together. Albeit those times they were on an actual bed with an actual mattress. This time it was a couch, a much smaller space that one person could sleep on, but not meant for two. Still, it would have to do.

Ren turned out the lights. "Goodnight guys."

"Goodnight." everyone else said.

Jaune led back on the couch, with Pyrrha on top of him. She draped a blue blanket she had found over the two of them and leaned her head against his chest. Jaune gently cradled her as they slowly drifted off to sleep.

 _I'm the luckiest man in the world._ he thought to himself.

* * *

The next day, at the Rose/Xiao-Long Family home, Ruby was petting and playing with the dog, Zwei, when she heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." she said to empty air.

 _Who in the world would come out here? Last I looked, dad hasn't invited any friends over..._

She opened the door and saw team JNPR on the other side. "Oh, hey guys. What brings you here?"

"We need your help, if you're willing to aid us." Pyrrha began.

Jaune continued, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join the four of us to Mistral, more specifically to Haven Academy, to put an end to Cinder's evil ways and uncover the truth about the Fall of Beacon. It will be dangerous, and there is the chance that you might not come back. Do you accept the mission?"

"I accept. Can you give me about 30 minutes to pack up my gear?"

"Sure thing."

Ruby closed the door and went back inside. She climbed up the stairs to her room and started packing her backpack for the journey, putting in a few clothing items, a canteen of water, dust packs and a sleeping bag. As she grabbed the first few items, her eyes turned to a picture of herself and her older sister, Yang. She looked away, feeling guilty.

 _How can I even tell them?_ she silently asked herself.


	40. Stay

Author's Notes:

-Alright, we've made it to the last part of the post volume 3 Arc. We'll soon be getting into volume 4.

-As a brief refresher, here's where we are now;

Ch. 1-5 Fall of Beacon and Immediate Aftermath (Vol 3)

Note that ch. 6-40 is the Post-Volume 3/Pre-Volume 4 Timeskip Begin Period. This divides into the following Arcs;

Ch. 6-10 Picking Up the Pieces, Ch. 11-15 Love and Loss, Ch. 16-19 Tragedy With No End, Ch. 20-26 Moving Forward, Ch. 27-30 Reunion and Breaking Free, Ch. 31-36 Leaving the Past Behind, Ch. 37-40 Endings and Beginnings

-Similar to the finale, we'll go through the current events, the credits (if desired), acknowledge RWBY's creator, Monty Oum, and see a revamped volume 3 post-credits scene. I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more to come.

* * *

Stay/Will You Be Here or Will I Be Alone?

* * *

Yang sat down on her bed, looking at the remaining piece of Ember Celica. She got up and looked at herself in the mirror. Her long blonde hair was messy and loose as she adjusted the gray jacket with a tied right sleeve over an orange tank top slightly exposing her midriff. The jacket's left sleeve bore her father's emblem. To complete the look, she gray-brown cargo pants, showing the rim of her dark undergarments and ribbed knee paneling. On the left leg of her pants was a red shield-shaped patch with imagery of three Ursa masks, and her emblem stitched on her right thigh.

She looked down at her missing right arm. For a moment, she envisioned her right arm manifesting from a yellow glow. She looked at the mirror, showing her a ghost of the past- Yang in her old outfit at the Vytal Festival, her gauntlets on and everything.

The mirror glowed with white energy and she was sucked into it. The next thing she knew, she was in the Vytal Festival, fighting against Mercury. There was no crowd, no cameras. Just her and Mercury in a one on one match. Her right arm went forward in a punch made right towards Mercury, but instead of hitting him, the image shattered like glass. It was an illusion.

"What the?"

"My leg, _MY LEG!_ Why'd she do that!? _WHY'D SHE ATTACK ME!?"_

Mercury wasn't even there, yet the words echoed off the sound of the stadium and she found the ground beneath her crumbling. Stone broke and she fell through the Colosseum, falling from the sky and her right arm began to dissolve in glowing yellow energy.

Voices rang in her ears as the wind rushed by her.

 _Yang Xiao Long, stand down!_

 _You are disqualified._

She remembered the first two voices, but her blood turned to ice when a new voice said, _You're guilty, Yang Xiao-Long!_

She wanted to scream, but it felt like the air was ripped out of her lungs. Her voice gone. Her head spinning as she fell.

 _No, no... Help!_

She woke up, gasping for air. As her panting slowed down, she slowly calmed herself. She looked at her phantom arm.

 _I've lost everything._ she thought to herself. _At least Ruby hasn't left yet. Then again, what's to stop her?_

The former warrior looked out the window, and thought she saw a raven. She looked away, then did a double take, but the black bird was gone.

She sighed. "Well, it's official. I've lost my mind." She spoke to empty air. "First my reputation and place in the tournament, then my arm, my best friend and partner, and now my sanity." She threw her head against the pillow. "Aside from my life, do I have anything more to lose?"

Little did the sunny little dragon know that she was merely tempting fate...

* * *

Blake and Sun were in Mountain Glen. Destroyed and dilapidated buildings as far as the eye could see, wooden and metal racks resembling structures of buildings that were never completed and the occasional Grimm lurking around. Of all the places that the catgirl had been, she never would have imagined herself returning here. She recalled the events that lead her here the first time...

The mission to stop the White Fang, Professor Oobleck accompanying them, Ruby going missing, finding her, fighting the White Fang while trying to stop the train...

She even remembered pinning Roman Torchwick down, her heel on his chest, and his taunting words that secretly struck one of her nerves.

 _"You think a little bow on top is gonna make people forget who you were? What you've done...?"_

She came out of her flashback, shaking her head. Sun asked, "Is something wrong?"

Blake didn't answer. "There it is- the location of the new White Fang lair."

She pointed to building that, surprisingly, was not destroyed. The White Fang had to have repaired it when they retreated from Vale. Or maybe it was one of the few buildings that was never destroyed, but the latter seemed likely. The building itself was about two stories tall and made of bricks. There were guards at every entrance, holding guns in their hands and weapons on their person.

"Of course there's guards." Sun groaned.

"Looks like we'll have to fight our way through. Ready to prove your loyalty?"

He smirked. "Ready when you are, m'lady."

She smiled and rolled her eyes as they walked forth. Upon seeing them, they were shot at to no end.

"Intruders!" one of the guards cried out.

"Get them!" another guard commanded.

The two former huntsman academy students easily dodged their gunfire, and Blake struck one of the guards in the back. Sun leaped over her to get the guard firing at her from behind and knocked him down with his staff. He spun his staff in his hands, knocking down guards one after the other before spinning it in front of him to fire their blasts right back at them.

Blake kicked down the door as she struck down a White Fang goon. "Come on!"

She motioned for Sun to come forth and they ran into the White Fang fortress. The two examined every room, fighting their way through several soldiers in swift motions. Eventually, the two kicked down the door as they finally reached Adam's quarters, but the chamber was empty. Adam was gone.

"He's gone."

"This can't be right. This is where Lieutenant Wycliffe said he was hiding."

"Is it possible that he knew we were coming and fled? No wait, that's ridiculous." Sun answered himself. "There's no way he could've known. Right?"

"Assuming a White Fang messenger didn't warn him of our arrival." She surveyed the room, seeing no damage. "But it's not like Adam to run from a fight, and as far I can tell, there aren't any signs of struggle. So he wasn't captured by the authorities or otherwise, so he had to left this place. The question remaining is why."

Sun shrugged his shoulders in defeat. "Beats me."

Blake looked at her new boyfriend curiously. "Hey Sun. That device that you used to used to find me... do you still have it?"

"Yeah, I still have it. Why?"

Blake took the device from him, then she grabbed a folded white sheet paper. She unfolded it to reveal a paper photograph of Adam Taurus. Holding the photo in her left hand and the device in the other hand, she scanned the photo with the special GPS.

 _Adam Taurus. Head northwest, towards Mistral_

"And so the hunt begins." Blake smirked. "We'll use this device to track him down, and when he find him, we'll put a stop him once and for all." She pocketed the photo and she saw Sun standing there, almost as if he was staring at something. "Is something wrong?"

He shrugged it off. "Nothing. Let's go."

Without another word, the two ran off.

* * *

Weiss grabbed another book off the bookshelf with her right hand. Who knew that with the Fall of Beacon and its CCT tower that she would turn to reading so much? Then again, reading helped her a lot. It served as a distraction. And it was better than drinking.

Weiss looked at the image of her mother on her desk. Her thoughts trailed to the times she saw her drinking.

 _Why does mom drink so much? Is it because father just used her as a means to an end? Or... or is there more that meets the eye?_

She tried not to dwell on these thoughts and was about to start reading the book jacket for the book in her hands when she heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

Estelle walked in. "Hello mistress." She gently closed the door behind her. "Are you feeling any better today?"

"A little, I suppose." She held the book in her arms. "Any word from your eldest granddaughter?"

"Still nothing. I have heard from the second oldest. She seems to be doing just fine."

"You have more than one granddaughter?"

"I currently have four grandchildren- three granddaughters and one grandson. I try not to play favorites, as I love all my grandchildren equally, but I can't deny that I have an especially close bond with my eldest granddaughter."

"And why is that?"

She seemed to hesitate at first, but then answered, "Multiple reasons. One of them being that she doesn't get along very well with her own mother."

"Oh..." Weiss looked down. "I see. I know it's none of my business, but I hope things will get better between them."

"I don't believe it ever will." Estelle said sadly. "It's been slowly getting worse for years. I fear that eventually, something really bad will happen because of their irreconcilable differences."

"I hope that doesn't happen..."

"As do I, ma'm." Estelle noticed Weiss holding the book to her chest. "And what new book have you started recently?"

"I just grabbed a random one off the shelf. I haven't started reading it yet actually. It's called..." She grabbed the book with her left hand and read its title aloud. " _Snow White and the Huntsman_."

"Hmm... I've never read that one, but I've heard good things about it. One of my friends told me that it was a good book."

"Good, just what I'm looking for."

"I'll leave you to it, then." Estelle began walking out. "Happy reading."

Weiss picked up the book and went to her chair. But before she could pick up the book, her mind asked her, _Can you really distract yourself forever?_

* * *

Ruby had just finished packing her bags. Taking a red pen and piece of paper, she wrote out a quick letter to her family.

 _To dad and Yang, I'm sorry for not telling you this earlier, but I'm leaving for Mistral. You need not fear, I'm_ _with team JNPR. They asked me to aid them in their mission. Together, the five of us will put an end to the evil that caused the Fall of Beacon. I hope that Yang can adjust to all that has happened. I'll miss you guys and I hope to one day return home safely._

 _Love you all, Ruby_

She drew a little heart on the letter and placed it on her bed.

 _Goodbye dad,_ she thought to herself.

Slinging her backpack over her shoulders, she grabbed her hood and exited her bedroom. As she went through the halls silently, Ruby saw the door wasn't completely shut. Slightly creaking the door open, she looked at her older sister, sitting on her bed under the covers, but she didn't even notice. She was lost in her own thoughts.

 _Goodbye Yang._

She turned away sadly. Her father wasn't even awake yet, so no one would see her leave. Quietly stepping down the stairs, the dog heard and stuck his tongue out. Ruby knelt down and petted the dog.

"Goodbye Zwei." She whispered. "Be a good boy while I'm gone, okay?"

She got up and took one last look at her home. A home she might not ever come back to. She tried not to dwell on that thought.

 _Goodbye._

Ruby exited out the door of her house, her backpack and gear ready for the quest. She greeted team JNPR, Pyrrha donning her cloak with her hood down. "Hey guys."

"Hey, Ruby. Thanks for agreeing to help us. Haven's a long way to go, and my father always said that there's safety in numbers." Jaune said.

"Yeah, and... we don't even entirely know what we're up against." Pyrrha added.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, we're about to embark on a crazy mission. We have no idea what we're really getting ourselves into. We're entering a dark tunnel and we have no way of knowing how long it is, when we'll reach the end, if we even reach the end..."

Jaune smiled. "I wouldn't say we're entirely in the dark. We have a small light- a light of knowledge, a light of truth. We know that Cinder Fall, the Fall- I mean wielder of the weapon, is up to no good, Mercury and Emerald are in cahoots with her, and that Emerald has the ability to create individual hallucinations. I'm sure that whatever gaps in knowledge we have will be filled in time."

Ren stated, "The journey will be perilous, and whether we'll find answers at the end is entirely uncertain."

"But we wouldn't be here if we weren't up for it." Nora said.

"Are you ready?" Ren asked his little red-hooded friend.

Ruby breathed in and answered, "I'm ready."

Pyrrha put her hood back up. "Then let's go."

The five began their long trek down the road leading away from the Xiao-Long/Rose family home. Pyrrha's gloved hand took hold of Jaune's as they went forth.

"A smaller, more honest soul. It's true that a simple spark can ignite hope, breathe fire into the hearts of the weary. The ability to derive strength from hope is undoubtedly mankind's greatest attribute... which is why I will focus all of my power to snuff it out."

As the words were spoken, the scene switched to Sienna, standing at the edge of a cliff of a village in Mistral, seeing the chaos unfolding below. Fires were spreading, and Grimm and rogue White Fang agents were all over the city. She got out her chain whip before literally jumping into the fray. As she fell, her facial expression shifted from an exasperated tone to a serious look.

"How does it feel? Knowing that all of your time and effort has been for nothing? That your guardians have failed you? That everything you've built will be torn down before your very eyes?"

The view switched to a young woman running in the snowy woods, a clear path in front of her, with patches of dense trees on both sides of her on slightly raised cliffs. She donned periwinkle sweat pants, a long sleeved white shirt barely visible under a snow blue parka with white fur on the inside of her hood and white winter gloves with navy blue snow boots. She stopped, shown to be heaving for breath as she looked at her hands before letting her right hand fall to her side. She brought her gloved left hand closer to her and looked at it ruefully. Her eyes obstructed from view, a tear fell down her face and hit the snow. Silently, she sighed, let her other arm fall at her side and went on her way, walking forward.

"Your faith in mankind was not misplaced. When banded together, unified by a common enemy, they are a noticeable threat. But divide them, place doubt into their minds, and any semblance of power they once had will wash away."

The view switched to Ozpin, now in the form of a green specter, at the top of the tower that was where his office used to be. He turned and saw the Grimm dragon turned to stone, before looking away despondently. He looked at the ruins and city down below him, silently sighing in defeat.

"Of course, they won't realize it at first. Like you, they'll cling to their fleeting hope, their aspirations. But this is merely the first move."

The scene showed the Arc sisters in quick succession- Rouge posing and smiling for the camera on the catwalk, wearing a pink maxi dress before going into a backroom visibly upset, then Tangerine cracking her whip before activating her semblance, glowing with a bright orange aura around her body as she fought criminals in a warehouse, and the other Arc sisters sitting in the living room sadly, looking at a picture of their absent sister, Emerald. Then it shifted to Emerald Arc with an emotionless expression as she walked through the forest, carrying multiple letters in hand.

"So you send your guardians. Your huntsmen and huntresses. And when they fail and you turn to your smaller soul, know that you send her to the same pitiful demise."

The scene then shifted revealing an ominous-looking stone stairway lined with dark purple crystals. At the top of the stairs, a figure in black robes overlooked a barren wasteland.

"This is the beginning of the end, Ozpin. And I can't wait to watch you burn."

Salem grinned maliciously with her eyes glowing red as the scene cut to black.

[cue RWBY Volume 3 Credits and Music-Divide]

 **RIP Monty Oum (1981-2015)**

* * *

[cue new volume 3 post-credits scene, Summer's Gravestone]

Ruby looked at the gravestone. "Goodbye mom... May the rose petals guide me on my journey, and back to you."

The heroes stood there in a moment of silence, mourning the dead and the end of their youthful innocence. Pyrrha, who had her hood down in respect for the dead, asked after a moment of silence, "Do you... mind if I stay here for a moment? There's something I'd like to say and do in solitude. I'll meet up with you by the broken tree."

The other four former Beacon students left, Jaune looking back at Pyrrha sadly before he, too, went away. The gladiator girl knelt down in the snow before the tombstone. She opened her cloak to reveal the duffel bag of swords. She got her backpack off her back and retrieved a family photo that she retrieved from the ruins of her house. Using her semblance, she opened the bag and made the swords levitate until they flew down, creating a circle around her that she gently set upon the ground.

She put her hands in prayer and spoke, "Mother... father... Words are not enough to describe the heart-crushing sorrow that fills my soul." Tears began to swell in her eyes. "I love you and I miss you dearly... I wish that you were here, guiding me through this seemingly endless night. I don't even know if I'm doing the right thing; I want to believe that I am, but I don't even know what my destiny is anymore. Beacon has fallen into pieces, the power I was promised was taken from me, and now I'm challenging that said person, but for what reason? For power? For spite? And what if I fail? What if I am not strong enough to do it? I have my allies, but I'm still scared." She cried, sobbing horribly. "I don't even know what me and my friends are getting into. This chaos and darkness... it could be even deeper than I realize. Which is why... before I go... I ask that you hear my prayer. Mom, give me your wisdom, to know right from wrong, when to fight and when to retreat. Dad, give me your courage to face all evil and chaos that comes my way."

She looked at her little brother in the photo. "Ash..." She stifled back a sob. "I do not know where you are, or what has become of you, but I can sense that, somehow, you're out there. I pray that the stars guide us on our separate paths so that we may meet again."

She then looked at Penny's swords, tears threatening to fall again. "Penny..." The tears she held back fell once again. "You were a good, sweet, innocent little girl. Loved by those who knew you. Penny, I know that you don't even know me, and that I hardly even knew you, but I kindly ask of you... to give me the hope to see this through til the very end. The will to continue, even in the darkest times. I know I made the promise to defeat the ones responsible for your death, but... I fear that I can not stop her... The fall maiden is extremely powerful, and even without her magical powers, she is extremely formidable. Her accomplice, the mirage maker, is also powerful and skilled on her own account. Could I really even defeat Emerald and put an end to Cinder's evil ways?" She sighed. "I don't even know who I am anymore." She looked down in regret. "I don't know if I can keep this promise, but I know one thing is certain;" The gladiator girl picked up one of the swords in front of her with her hands and held it sideways. "I will fulfill this promise to you... or I will die trying." A single tear fell onto the sword.

As she knelt there, she felt herself getting colder. The red-haired warrior picked up the family photo, putting it back into her backpack. She levitated the swords, put them back in her bag and manually zipped it shut before slinging it back on. She stood up, her legs shaking and put her hands down. "Well, it is time for me to go. Farewell, mom and dad. You will always be in my heart. Goodbye, Ash. For now, until I see you again. Farewell, Penny Polendina. I will never forget my promise to you."

She secretly thought to herself, _An oath to keep with a final breath. As I look into the eyes of death..._

The gladiator girl turned away and left the scene, not realizing that a deathly pale-skinned woman watched her from afar, a black sphere showing her with her hands underneath her chin.

"Such a huge promise to the deceased. A heavy burden on her shoulders." The Seer floated away, down the outdoor purple and red glass staircase, leaving the witch to her thoughts. Salem turned to look at the domain, the land of darkness. "Too bad it is a promise that can never be fulfilled." She conjured a flame in her hand before forming a small image of an autumn leaf with the fire in front of her. "She seeks to bring her down, yet she does not even know the damage her friend has caused to her worst enemy." She smirked to herself before the flame leaf vanished. "But when the fall maiden returns, she will be stronger than ever."

As she said this, Cinder was shown, still unconscious as the blanket covered her missing arm. "From the shadows she will rise, from the shadows she will strike- and when she strikes, she will bring the not-so-invincible girl's downfall." The view turned to Salem once again, this time her eyes glowing with red energy. "So enjoy this life while you can, Pyrrha Nikos, because when Cinder Fall rises once again, you will be outmatched. You will find yourself alone once again. Your weapons will shatter with your soul, your strength will run out, and when the chips are down, she will finish what she started. There will be no escaping your fate..." She clinched her fist in sadistic joy. "and you will meet your demise."

Her malicious laughter echoed throughout the land until the scene faded to black.


	41. Bring Me to Life

Author's Notes;

-Hey guys and girls! We've successfully made it to the volume 4 part of the story. Now, since the timeskip period has been chronologically imbalanced (ex- having Weiss's volume 4 part occur before RNJR's part), we're going to be starting in the actual winter part. This means that some of the canon Vol. 4 moments will be occurring later, if at all. I know it might be a bit confusing at times, but bare with me. This is not going to be easy for me to write...

-As I've said earlier, not all timeskip changes will be shown immediately. Again, just bare with me. In a way, however, this will also allow you, the audience, to see how the change occurs over time. We got a long way to go.

-Similar as to how the volume 3 post-credits scene has been changed, volume 4's intro is changed as well. I hope you like it.

And as such, I've given two characters new designs that will be fully shown in time;

Pyrrha; Her hair is braided into a waist length braid with her bangs brushed aside, rendering her forehead visible. She no longer wears her traditional circlet, but instead wears a pink headband on the upper part of her forehead with a small ribbon on the front in honor of Penny. She wears armor covering her entire chest, her neckline and her shoulders. Under her armor, she wears a red t-shirt with a phoenix design over her stomach with the short sleeves, lined with a golden lining, stopping slightly past her shoulders. She wears brown tights with her red sash wrapped around her to create a mini skirt. She wears knee high wedged boots with golden armor on the upper part of her legs, along with red bracers on both of her arms.

Sun; His hair remains the same, but he dons a red ninja bandana on his head with long tails. His jeans are ripped, exposing his right knee wrapped in bandages and he no longer wears his pendant or white shirt. Instead he wears a black unbuttoned shirt with a sun image on the right side of his chest and gold trim around the waist part.

-Also note that Ironwood does not have his volume 4 design (I made this choice because Roosterteeth butchered his new model when they switched to Maya models in volume 4)

Now, without further adieu, let's get rolling!

* * *

[cue revamped RWBY Volume 4 intro and music-Let's Just Live]

[The intro starts out normal until the wind blows Ruby's hood down, showing Pyrrha (in updated volume 4 attire) between Nora and Ren, and the five continue walking forth, with Ruby in the front and team JNPR in the back. The intro continues normally, but instead of zooming into Jacques's eye, Willow is shown drinking red wine from a wine glass before tumbling down and showing Weiss breaking down, the screen shattering along with a wine glass breaking into pieces. Afterwards, the image is shifted to Pyrrha, now with her red cloak and hood down, kneeling in the snow with one of Penny's swords in her hands, tears streaming down her face and falling onto the sword before transitioning to Blake fighting White Fang members with Gambol Shroud. The opening continues on as normal, until Yang falls with the shadow of Adam's visage in front of her, but instead of Fennec and Corsac gliding in front of her, she fades completely before Sienna stands angrily with her chain whip in her right hand swung around once in the air, then towards the screen before proceeding to Salem's faction. The intro proceeds the same until we see Blake glaring at Adam, their swords against each other, and Sun (in updated volume 4 attire) spinning his staff as he charges towards Adam. The scene transitions to Ruby+team JNPR fighting the Grimm, with Pyrrha slashing her spear against the Grimm before cutting to Pyrrha at Jaune's left. Finally, Qrow and Raven (in their bird forms) fly over the quintet of heroes, showing team RWBY and the title _RWBY_ at the end in the tundra.]

* * *

Bring Me to Life/Wake Me Up Inside

* * *

The shattered moon showed fragments of light as a young woman with green hair sat beside a damaged woman, lying unconscious on the bed. Emerald sighed. She sat by Cinder's bedside everyday, hoping that she would wake up. Three months had passed since the Fall of Beacon, and still, nothing had changed. She looked at the magical wires that Salem created to keep Cinder alive, sustaining her with magic. Most of the time, she didn't even notice them. This time... it was different.

"Cinder... Please... wake up..."

Deep inside Cinder's conscious mind, she was trapped in an endless nightmare. One moment it felt like she had victory in her hands, and then the next thing she knew, she was being injured by an overbearing, suffocating light.

Ruby slightly levitated in air as white angel wings created the suffocating light. "PYRRHA!"

The malevolent fall maiden felt the white light sting and her skin felt like it was on fire. "What?!"

The light soon engulfed her and she felt as though she was being painfully shocked with something that wasn't electric bolts. As Ruby came to the ground her eyes still white, a tear fell from her eye and Cinder was blasted off the tower, some of the white light sticking to her and attacking her. She tried to scream, but it felt like the air was ripped out of her lungs as the light wrapped around her left arm and began to disintegrate it. The left side of her face, ear and eye also caught the white light and began to burn and disintegrate along with most of her hair. As she fell, she watched helplessly in horror as she suffered severe damage. Then her back hit the ground and everything faded to black.

As the scene shifted to Emerald watching over Cinder, a knock was heard on the door. The thief did not give a response and the door was slowly creaked open, revealing Mercury on the other side. He saw Emerald and looked at Cinder, saying nothing.

After a long moment of silence, Emerald turned to him and asked, "Any good news to report?"

Mercury answered, "Well Tyrian has arrived, if that tells you anything."

The thief frowned. "I said good news."

"It is good news."

"You don't know what good news is." She twirled her chair around so that she didn't have to see him. "I don't give a damn about our so-called cohorts. I just want Cinder to wake up. I just want her to be okay..."

Mercury looked at his boss, still unconscious. He gave her a slight poke. No reaction. "I hate to say it Em, but she's not waking up. It's been three months, and nothing's happened. She could be like this forever..."

Emerald balled her fist in anger. "You just don't care, do you?!"

"Of course I care! But it's not going us any good to mourn for the dead." Mercury looked at his partner. "You have to move on."

"But she's not dead, you tin canned idiot! She's in a coma!"

"Enough." a stern voice said.

The two orphans turned to find the mistress of the Grimm standing before them in the doorway, her arms folded and an annoyed look on her face. "Mistress Salem." Mercury greeted.

"Madame Salem." Emerald said simultaneously.

"She hasn't stirred, has she?"

"Not one sign of movement, mistress." Emerald said sadly.

"The current treatment has been keeping her alive and slowly healing her, but it is not working fast enough. I was hoping that I would not have to do this, but if I want to hasten her recovery, I have no choice. Stand back." Emerald and Mercury backed away as Salem conjured a purple lightning bolt in her right hand. Before she could take further action, a soft moan was heard. Cinder's eyes twitched before slowly opening up, taking in the light as her eyes were slightly blurry.

"Cinder!" Emerald run to her side as Cinder sat up and Salem dissipated the magic in her hand. The young thief then threw her arms around the injured, formerly comatose woman. "I..." She began to choke up, her words threatening to fail her. "I thought we lost you."

Emerald broke away from the hug after Cinder returned the embrace. "Cinder? What happened?" Mercury asked.

Cinder tried to speak, but when she did, only very soft, barely audible sounds came out. She mentioned for Emerald to come forth, to which she complied. She whispered into Emerald's ear. She nodded as Cinder finished.

"What did she say?"

"She said that she can barely speak, and that she was somehow blasted off the tower and injured by Ruby."

"Basically what we already knew."

Salem turned to Cinder. "Given your current condition, I don't desire to interrogate you to no end. Just answer me this-Did you kill Ozpin?" Cinder nodded in confirmation. "Good." The Grimm Mistress turned to Cinder's subordinates. "Regarding her failure to defeat her opponent and retrieve Beacon's relic, it is a setback, but for the most part, Cinder succeeded in her objective." Cinder gave a weak thumbs up with her remaining arm. "Now come, I believe it is best if we leave her to recover."

Emerald and Mercury walked out, and soon thereafter, Salem did as well, leaving the damaged fall maiden to her thoughts.

 _What happened to me?_

* * *

Taiyang was climbing up the stairs with a tray in his hands. On that tray was Ruby's breakfast- a plate of strawberries, warm croissants, an overeasy egg, a bowl of cinnamon apple oatmeal and a mug of warm hot chocolate. Through the opened door to the other room, he saw Yang nibbling on a piece of toast.

He turned away and knocked on Ruby's door. "Ruby... I made you breakfast. Are you okay?" He knocked on her door. No answer. He slowly creaked open the door with his back, only to find the room empty. "Ruby?" Tai saw a note on her bed, so he balanced the tray on his left hand and picked up the note in the other. Upon seeing the note, he dropped both the note and the tray, creating a loud crashing sound.

His eldest daughter came running to the site of the crash. "Dad? Is everything alright?" Yang noticed his worried silence. "Dad?"

Yang's dad picked up the note and showed it to Yang. "Ruby... She's gone. She left with team JNPR on a mission to Mistral."

Yang clinched her fist, shaking in silent sorrow. She thought to herself, _How could she? How could she leave us with no warning?_

Without another word, Yang left, retreating to her room. Taiyang sighed. "What am I gonna do now?"

 _All the teachers at Beacon are currently trying to fix Vale and Beacon, and with Yang in the current state that she is, there's no way I can leave her here to try and find Ruby and bring her back home. Or aid her in her mission. I can't just drag Yang out there either._

 _If only I could contact Qrow... but most likely he's away doing important work for Ozpin. He's probably out of contact boundaries. Still, I suppose there's no harm in trying._

He whipped out his scroll, scrolled through his contacts list and found Qrow Branwen towards the top. The contact was even starred. He pressed the button and dialed up his number, hoping that he'd be close to enough to receive the call.

After a few seconds, it started dialing and the first ring was heard. Taiyang looked up hopefully. Maybe Qrow would answer. Then a second ring came. A third. A fourth. After the fifth, it went to voicemail.

"Hey. It's me, Qrow. I honestly don't know why you're calling, but leave your name and number I might get back to you."

Beep. "Hey Qrow. It's me, Tai." Taiyang began his message. "I know you're busy with Ozpin's duties, or you're just trying to forget about your troubles, but if you're in the area and you're not horribly busy, I need to ask you a really big favor. If you're able, come to the house as soon as you can. Thanks."

He sighed. Then he saw the mess on the floor, sighing again, this time louder.

* * *

It was less than an hour since Cinder had risen and returned to the world of the living. She looked at herself in mirror, seeing the new outfit that Salem had given her to replace the old damaged one. Her outfit consisted of a long, dark red dress with one long, wide sleeve hiding her left arm. For the right arm, the edges of the collar and the opening were gold-colored, and the upper chest and left sleeve were decorated with golden designs.

The right side of her dress was open from the hip down with two gold-colored straps made up of interwoven ropes connecting the front and back halves of her thigh. Under the dress, she wore black pantyhose. On the right hip, the dress had a black rhombus-shaped gem set in a gold-colored metal of the same shape, with feathers of varying shades of blue. On her right arm, she wore a long, gray glove, the top of which has a gold-colored metal ring with curvy branching extensions going up her arm. Over her missing left eye, she wore a black mask made of black glass, and the scarring from said injury extended into a slight x-shape over the bridge of her nose, as well as having deformed and degraded the tissue of her left ear. Her right ear had a new, ring-shaped earring higher up than the dangling black gem earring.

As she stared at her new crippled self in the mirror, she briefly imagined her previous more beautiful self replacing her reflection. This was the Cinder that killed Amber and became the fall maiden. This was the Cinder that defeated Ozpin. The Cinder that almost killed Pyrrha Nikos.

She remembered that Pyrrha was bleeding out from her sacrifice. She was laughing at the warrior's misery before she was defeated. The image of Pyrrha Nikos came to her mind. Was there a chance that she was still alive?

 _Considering that Ruby is alive, it is likely that Pyrrha survived as well. I'm in no shape to face either of them. Not after being injured like this. But both of them could come after me. I may be weakened, but I'm not completely helpless. At least, that's what I would like to believe._

She suddenly felt fatigued and had to lie back down on her bed.

 _I need answers. But how will I get them?_

* * *

Meanwhile, in Kuo Kuana, a White Fang messenger in Menagerie climbed up a long set of white steps to the top of a mountain. He heaved for breath as he trudged up the steps. By the time he finally got to the top, he was gasping for breath. After taking a moment or two to catch his breath, he knocked on a white door and continued panting as he waited for a response.

A few moments later, a bat-winged faunus, Yuma, answered the door. From the entrance, he could see a dark wooden floor, a yellow ceiling at least twenty feet from the floor, a hall that led to a living room/kitchen area, an open archway leading to another room on his left and a wooden staircase on his right.

"Letter to the Albain brothers." the messenger spoke.

"Excellent." He took the letter from the messenger's hands. "Would you like a glass of water and a place to rest?"

He readily accepted the invitation and went inside. "You are too kind."

As the messenger walked through the hall, Yuma flew over him, got the messenger a glass of water as he sat down on a white sofa and flew off to deliver the message. In front of him was a carpet and across from him was a grey haired, blue eyed spider faunus named Trifa, who payed no attention to him as she combed her hair.

Down in the basement, Fennec and Corsac stood before a shrine in a candlelit ominous looking room, candlelit, with White Fang banners hanging along the walls. The Albain brothers, Fennec and Corsac stood in front of a painting of a shadowed fox eared figure with an orange hood.

"I still can't believe how we rose to power." Corsac stated.

"While it is a tragedy, we can take advantage of the occurrences that occurred because of it." Fennec responded. "What's the old expression? 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?'"

"Masters Fennec and Corsac." Yuma said, still in air. He landed and bowed before them, extending the letter in his hand. "A letter addressed to you both."

Corsac took the letter from him and the bat winged faunus left as quickly as he entered. The Albain brothers looked over the letter. They both smiled as Fennec said, "It seems that Brother Taurus has finally responded."

Corsac's tail moved slightly. "We haven't heard from him in quite a while. Not since the Fall of Beacon."

"It seems he doesn't even know what happened here."

"I guess we will have to inform him that Diane fell ill and died. Since Aunt Diane died without any successors, as her nephews, we were the next in line."

"Unfortunately, Menagerie doesn't have a CCT tower like the rest of the world. It'll take forever to respond back."

"Even if we had one, it wouldn't do us very much good. Beacon's CCT tower fell, which means the entire CCT is down, remember?"

Fennec's ears drooped down in sadness. "Oh... Right..."

"Who knows? Perhaps we will be able to get a CCT tower one day."

The fox-eared faunus laughed. "Ha! That's a crazy thought!"

His brother folded his arms and pouted. "It is not!"

"It also seems that Adam could use assistance, with his troops being taken." Fennec scratched his head in confusion. "But what can we do?"

"Perhaps we could send one of our specialists to find him and aid him in his mission."

"We could, couldn't we?" Corsac nodded in agreement with Fennec's question. "Now for the real question- who do we send?"


	42. Lost from Within, Pursuing the End

Lost from Within, Pursuing the End/You Will Never Be Strong Enough

* * *

In the dark of night, a private bullhead moved through Mistral with a small amount of passengers. The airship moved stealthy, making sure not to draw attention to itself and it's crew. Inside the bullhead, Adam and his trusted lieutenant, along with three other White Fang goons, sat at a wooden table nearby the pilot and copilot in the cockpit.

The White Fang Lieutenant made a tick mark on a small piece of paper. There were two marks so far. Adam sighed. "Look on the bright side. We've actually made it to Mistral without being caught." The lieutenant said to him. "From here, it'll be another day before we hit our first stop."

"There's three places that Maura likely hid herself-" Adam pointed to three different locations on the map of the kingdom. "Wind Path, Kuchinashi or Shion, a small village along the Mistralian trade route." He pointed back to Wind Path. "We'll look at Wind Path first. From what I've had my lieutenant gather from local Mistralian faunus outside of his traditional uniform, of the two known havens for outlaws, Wind Path is the bigger of the two. It would be easier for Maura to hide in a bigger village, so we are more inclined to believe that that is where she hid herself."

"So, remind me, why are we going after Maura again?" one of the goons asked.

"Aren't we supposed to kill her?" another asked.

"No, my dear friend." Adam answered. "Quite the opposite actually. With Sienna Khan punishing me for the events that happened at Beacon, I have to get the Mistralian White Fang leader to help me invade Haven Academy. Since Maura's on the run, she's likely scared and alone. If we help her, shelter her away from the authorities who would want nothing more than to have her head, she will feel grateful and more inclined to aid us with our goal."

"But isn't Maura one of Sienna's loyal agents?" the third one asked.

"The question you should be asking is 'How strong is Maura's loyalty to Sienna?'" Adam stated. "Dire circumstances can change how a person acts, and she's under a lot of stress right now. Not only is she the most wanted target in Mistral right now, the bounty on her head is ever increasing. Last I looked, the bounty is currently 125,000 Lien."

"150,000 Lien actually." the first goon corrected. "That price was from a few weeks ago. The bounty has increased since then." He handed Adam a wanted poster. "See for yourself."

He examined the poster. In between the first and second lines was a picture of Maura.

 _Wanted; Maura Celandine_

 _For the storming of Sanctum Academy_

 _Wanted dead or alive_

 _She may or may not be armed, likely very dangerous. Also noted for being a compulsive liar._

 _Reward- 150,000 Lien_

"I stand corrected, but my point also still stands." Adam noted. "As the civil war escalates and mankind is caught in the middle of it, the bounty on her head will increase and if nothing is done, she'll die all alone. If we don't get her support, the plan to invade Haven will never get off the ground." He looked to his lieutenant. "How much longer until we reach Wind Path?"

"We should be at the outskirts within a few days." his lieutenant answered.

Adam smiled to himself. "Excellent."

* * *

Back at the Arc family home, Tangerine had just returned from another long day of hunting criminals. As she stopped for a moment to catch her breath, she took out a notepad with the names of fugitives who were worth big money along with a pen. She marked out a few names and put the items away. Despite having fought three fugitives in one day, as well as twenty regular thugs, she managed to get through the day relatively unscathed. She only got one scratch on her right wrist.

As she opened the door, she saw her younger sisters, sans Emerald, sitting around in the living room, waiting for her.

"Tangerine! You're home!" Indigo said.

She smirked. "Shouldn't you guys be asleep by now?"

"We just wanted to see you return home safely." Amethyst answered earnestly.

Her smirk shifted to a genuine smile. "Aw thanks. Glad to know you girls care."

"Ah, I see you have returned." Rouge said, before noticing the minor damage. "And what happened with your wrist?"

"Don't worry. Tis but a scratch."

"At least it was minor. Also, you have mail."

Tangerine raised an eyebrow. "Mail? Who would be sending me mail?"

Rouge retrieved and read the words on the envelope. "Judging from the envelope, it appears to be from someone named Yang Xiao-Long. Isn't she a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, I sent her a letter a few weeks ago." Tangerine took the letter as Rouge handed it to her. "I was beginning to think that she never got it." She took out a pocket knife and opened the envelope. "I could use some good news right now." As she began to read Yang's response, the smile on her face shifted to a neutral expression. Then her expression shifted to a worried look. About half-way through silently reading her response, she gasped. "No... it can't be..."

"What's the matter?" Acacia asked.

"It's Yang... She... lost most of her right arm during the Fall of Beacon."

The other sisters gasped. "Oh no..." Amethyst said.

"Oh..." Azura added.

"That's unfortunate." Rouge said. "Then again, there's always risks to being a huntress. Or even a semi-pro huntress."

The tomboy held back tears and sighed. "You're not wrong."

"Is there anything else in there?" Indigo inquired.

Tangerine looked at the letter. "Let's see..." She looked over the rest of the letter. "She claims that she thought she saw Mercury attack her, even though she doesn't know why, Pyrrha unintentionally ripping Penny apart, the Fall of Beacon, how several forces attacked Beacon, including the White Fang, of which an elitist from that group attacked her partner and she lost her temper and her arm... She also speaks about what happened to her teammates, how team RWBY dissolved, confessing that writing the letter was not easy and wishing me good luck in all my endeavors. I think that's about it. Oh wait. There's a PS section. _'PS- Sorry I forgot about sending you a birthday text message. Happy belated birthday, Tang.'_ "

"So what are you going to do now that you know this?" Rouge asked.

Tang tried to repress a sob, without much success. The tears the tough tomboy held back began to fall. "I'll give myself the night to grieve." She sniffed. "Stupid tears... Come next morning, those emotions will be tabled and I'll get right back out there."

"It's alright." Amethyst said.

"No, it's not. I'm not supposed to cry. I'm supposed to be tough." Tangerine threw her arms around Acacia. "I haven't cried in years..."

"Look on the bright side. At least it's not in public." Indigo said to reassure her.

"There, there..." Acacia petted her head, trying to comfort her older sister.

Azura mused to herself briefly. "You know, a thought just occurred to me..."

"And what might that be?" Tangerine asked, breaking away from Acacia.

"Since Jaune was present for the Fall of Beacon, he had to have known about Yang's injury. But since Tangerine gasped upon seeing this letter with the revelation, we can deduce that he never told her what happened to her friend. Why would he keep this from her?"

"Maybe he didn't have the heart to tell her." Amethyst answered.

"Or maybe he never felt any need to tell her." Rouge suggested.

Azura shrugged. "Either way, we know the truth now, and we can't scold him if he's not here."

Acacia yawned. "Either way, it's been a long night for all of us. I'm going to bed."

Azura added, "Yeah, I'm going to get some shut eye."

Indigo responded, "Same."

"What she said." Amethyst answered.

"Goodnight girls!" Rouge said to her sisters.

"Goodnight." the four of them said.

As Acacia and the three youngest sisters went upstairs to their bedrooms, Tangerine left the room and went to the kitchen, getting herself a few cubes of ice in a glass of water. Rouge followed her lead and got herself a cup of warm lavender tea.

As the two sat down at the dining room table across from each other, the fashionista asked, "Are you sure that you'll be okay?"

The criminal catcher wiped away her tears before putting her hand to the ice filled glass. "I'll be fine."

"If you say so..." Rouge responded, only half-convinced.

"You must remember Rouge, I was nicknamed the tough tomboy for a reason." Tangerine took another sip of water. "I don't do touchy feely stuff."

"Or whatever extremely sorrowful emotions you have, you mask them with anger. But why is it that you don't like crying, especially in the public eye?"

Tangerine sighed deeply. "Do you remember the last time I cried?"

Rouge frowned. "How can I forget?"

* * *

Meanwhile in Patch, Ruby and team JNPR were camping out in the woods, sitting around the campfire. Pyrrha still wore her cloak from earlier, and had her hood down. They had just finished Ren's stew.

"Thanks for making dinner Ren." Ruby said.

"No problem." he responded.

Nora yawned. "Man, it's been a long first day." She rubbed her eyes. "So who's taking the first watch?"

"We'll go by team name order, so it'll be me, then Nora, Pyrrha, Ren and Ruby." Jaune answered. "The next person will be woken up in four hours to take their shift, which means there should be roughly two shifts a night. Whenever the second shift ends, whoever's up will wake up everyone else and we get a move on. I've already imposed myself for first watch, so sleep tight knowing that the Arc-man is on the clock."

Pyrrha tried to refrain from laughing. _What a dork._ she thought to herself.

Instead she said, "Goodnight, Mr. Handsome."

Ren smiled. "Goodnight my friends. Sleep well."

"Sleep tight everyone!" Nora said.

Ruby unfurled her sleeping bag. "Goodnight guys."

Everyone got into their sleeping bags under the stars save for Pyrrha, who went into her own tent. She took off her cloak and got out her pillow. Curling herself up in her sleeping bag and resting her head on her pillow, Pyrrha fell asleep quickly and hoped that her dreams would not torment her.

Unfortunately, she was wrong. The dream began with Qrow bringing Amber, unconscious, scarred and donned in her white clothes, in his arms to a horrified Ozpin, who was up in his office. Upon Qrow entering he stood up and gasped. "Oh no..." Ozpin was worried. "What...?"

"Long story." Qrow answered without really answering. "Is there anyway to save her?"

"We must get her on life support." Ozpin moved the painting of the Forever Fall forest aside, revealing the secret entrance to the vault. He pressed the button for the elevator to open and motioned Qrow to enter. The two entered the elevator, descended to the vault and once they got there, they ran forth as Ozpin scrambled around for a remote controlled button. He pressed it, and a metal pod opened its door for him. "Hurry, put her in!"

The huntsman shoved her into the pod and as Qrow lowered the door down, Ozpin pressed a few blue boxes on the nearby grid. The message, _Life Support Activated_ appeared on the screen. Ozpin sighed, both in relief and in exasperation.

"Ozpin..." Qrow began, still unsure what to say.

He sighed again, the emotions still present. "Tell me what happened."

"She was attacked, the perpetrators unknown. Her power was being drained by some strange Grimm glove of some kind. I was able to stop the woman from taking all her powers, but the unknown presumed leader has at least half of Amber's Fall Maiden power."

"And she had only ascended to fall maidenhood three months ago." He sighed again, looking at Amber's scarred face. "Oh, I don't want to have to explain this to the Scarlett family..."

Qrow took a sip of whatever was in his flask. "Maybe you won't have to."

Ozpin gave him a quizzical look. "What do you mean by that?"

"Who knows? Maybe she'll wake up." The scene immediately cut to Glydna Goodwitch and James Ironwood being here. Qrow sighed. "She's not waking up. It's been six weeks and she has shown no sign of waking up anytime soon."

He began to drink as Ozpin lamented, "We can't keep her on life support forever. If nothing is done, she will eventually die and her assailant will get the other half of Amber's powers, making her the Fall Maiden."

"What do we do now?" Glydna asked.

Ironwood looked at the unconscious Amber. "There might be one way to prevent this from happening."

Qrow asked drunkenly, "And what's that Jimmy?"

The general sighed and rolled his eyes. "More recently, an experiment was done in aura, where we were able to successfully transfer an aura from a physical body to a robot body. I believe that the same procedure could be used with Amber and an eligible candidate for a maiden."

Glydna glared at him fiercely. "Compressing an aura, into a young woman? Are you out of your mind?!"

"I know that this does not sound like a good idea to the rest of you, but we may not have a choice. Ozpin told us that we only have a year to find and implement a solution to this problem. If we fail to find a solution before that life support expires, Amber's assassin becomes the new fall maiden. Unless we can think of another plan..."

"Even then, who could we trust with half of the fall maiden's power?"

"That is what we don't know." Ozpin answered. "But we can begin the search for potential candidates immediately."

The scene switched to Ozpin in his office, looking through images of female Beacon Academy students. He looked at the images of Coco Adel, Yang Xiao-Long, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and a woman Pyrrha didn't recognize.

As he did this, he thought to himself,

 _She could be a good candidate._

 _Not her, she's a bit too fiery-tempered._

 _Don't want to be sued by Jacques Schnee if something were to go wrong, so scratch that idea._

 _Blake is calm, she might be willing, although I can't help but feel that she's hiding something... Still, she could be a good candidate._

 _Not her, she is not ready.  
_

He looked at Pyrrha Nikos' image.

 _Maybe she'll be the one we're looking for._

The scene switched to Qrow and Ozpin in the headmaster's office. "So, have you chosen your guardian yet?" Qrow asked.

Ozpin swirled his chair around to face the drunkard. "Maidens choose themselves. I simply believe I've found the right candidate. Ever since the day I met her, I had the feeling she would be the one. She's strong, intelligent, caring... but most importantly, _she's ready._ "

After the line of dialogue was spoken, it showed Pyrrha alone in the vault elevator, as if she was about to take the power.

 _Were you ever truly ready?_ a voice asked her. It was her own.

The image of her faded away, replaced with darkness around her.

 _No... not this again..._ she thought.

The silence was broken by a familiar voice. "You were never meant to be the Fall Maiden."

A shadow manifested from the darkness, creating an intangible form of Cinder Fall. Her shadow possessed the maiden glow around her eyes, but like the rest of her body, was made out of smoke and shadows. "You're just another step on my path to power! You're nothing more than a catalyst. You may have survived, but at what cost? The world thinks you're a murderer, and your reputation as a great brave warrior has been burned to ashes. The truth burns, doesn't it?"

She breathed in and said shakily, "That... that's not true!"

"Is it? Or are you just lying to yourself to make yourself look like the hero?" The red-haired warrior didn't answer. Shadow Cinder glowed with orange energy around her. "You will never be strong enough. You will never be good enough. You will not rise above."

The shadow rose her arms, creating waves of fire directed at her. Upon the fire creeping up on her, Pyrrha ran away. Bands of sweat formed on her forehead as the warrior continued to run. A warm feeling crept up her spine and she felt terror run through her. That fire was right behind her. "You can't run forever, Pyrrha Nikos! Sooner or later, you'll get what you deserve!" She tripped and fell down, feeling the fire wave about to engulf her when she suddenly woke up, gasping for air.

It had all been a dream. But why did it feel like the imaginary form of Cinder was right? She looked at her side- Jaune was not there, which meant that he was still on guard duty. Despite being curled up in a sleeping bag, she shivered, feeling coldness creep up on her. She heard the sound of flat footsteps, some murmuring and more footsteps, these ones lighter.

A moment later, Jaune entered the tent, softly yawning to himself. He faintly noticed that Pyrrha was awake. "Pyrrha?" He asked groggily before kneeling by her side. "I thought you were asleep. Did I wake you?"

"Jaune... I..." She sniffed.

His eyes widened in concern. "What happened?"

She crawled out of her bag and looked at him, "I.. I had a nightmare and..." She turned to Jaune and began to sob into his chest.

"Shh... It's okay." Gingerly, he wrapped his arms around her and gently stroked her hair, trying to help her as best as he could. "I'm here for you."

"Cinder... she said... that... sooner or later... I'll get what I deserve." she answered between sobs.

"She believes that you deserve horrible things, but you don't." He looked at her eyes. "You are innocent. You have never done anything wrong. Whereas Cinder... she is not innocent. Far from it actually. She's caused death and destruction wherever she's gone. And we will stop her."

"Thank you, Jaune..." She looked at him forlornly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything. What is it?"

She looked away from him as the image of Cinder came to her mind. "Do you think that I'm strong enough to face Cinder, the way that I am now?"

He took her hand and gently grasped it. She turned to him as he answered, "I believe you are, and if not, then you will be."

His words were soothing, but why was she still worried?

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Schnee Family Manor, Weiss was trying to sleep, but her restless mind would not let her rest. She looked out her window, seeing a dark, gloomy, moonless sky. She tossed and turned beneath the sheets before turning to her side. It did not help that the moonless night was accompanied by a hard rainfall.

 _Why couldn't you save her?_ _How could you have failed to keep your promise?_ She internally sighed to herself. _Maybe I should have insisted on going into the operating room and holding the glyph on her until she woke up._

Eventually, she fell asleep, even though she didn't remember when or how it happened. One minute she was lying awake in guilt and the next thing she knew, she was out like a light.

The dream began with Pyrrha Nikos lying dead in a casket, a bouquet of roses in her hands as everyone stood around her.

"I can't believe it..." Ruby sniffed. "She's gone..."

"How could you let this happen?!" Jaune lashed out in anger, pointing at her. "You promised you'd save her!"

Ren give her a glare. "You failed."

"Way to go, Weiss. Way to go, heiress!" Blake sarcastically exclaimed.

Nora glared and pointed at her. "We lost our friend because of you!"

Yang sobbed. "First I lose my arm, and now this?"

"You're guilty!"

"You're a failure!"

"You made a promise!"

The former students of Beacon yelling at Weiss suddenly turned into shadows and Weiss ran away from them. Shadow Nora smashed the ground with her hammer, creating a huge crack that Weiss tripped over. As she fell, the shadows caught up with her, and they all held her down on her back. The shadows of Ruby and Yang held her right and left arms respectively, while the shadows of Blake and Ren held on to her left and right legs.

The shadow of Jaune stood before her as he drew his sword.

"No... please... don't!" Weiss pleaded.

"You made a promise Weiss. You failed." Shadow Jaune retaliated. "Now you must pay!"

"No, NO!"

His shadow swung his sword down towards her and in a flash of lightning, Weiss woke up, bolting upwards and gasping for breath. Thunder could be heard as lightning was seen in the distance. The rain continued to pour as the heiress sat there wide awake. Her head fell back down on the pillow. Who knew that the truth could hurt so much? She turned to her side, reading the numbers in a blaring blue font; 4:45am. She sighed. It was going to be a long night.


	43. Meeting of the Minds

Author's Notes:

-Hey everyone! Normally, I wouldn't do an early update, but since I got done with this chapter early, and since it's a festive day, I decided to post this chapter early. To those of you who are celebrating it, Happy 4th of July! Hope you have a good time with family and/or friends!

Now then, let's get rolling!

* * *

A large paw emerged from the pool of black slime and Beowolf gradually crawled out it. Slime coated the Beowolf before it slid off and fell onto the ground in the purple and dark red land. Several more Beowolves emerged as Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai watched on down below from the inside of a high building. Emerald had her hand to her mouth while Mercury was slightly disgusted. A gloved hand, belonging to Cinder, appeared between two purple crystal formations and snapped its fingers.

Emerald and Mercury moved away from the window towards crystal table with the other members of Salem's function, save for the leader herself- Arthur Watts, who was looking at his Scroll, Tyrian Callows, resting his arms on his knees, and Hazel Rainart with his arms crossed. After moving to Cinder's side, Emerald nudged Mercury out of her way so that she could be directly next to Cinder.

"Yes, yes, keep your posse in check." Mercury grunted and walked towards Watts angrily, but Emerald held him back. "You hear that? Silence." Hazel gave Watts an unimpressed sideways glance. "I've half a mind to thank the little girl that bested you."

"If I were you, I'd hunt her down." Tyrian snickered. "Find her and, well, she took your eye, didn't she?"

The fall maiden stared at Tyrian as he cackled at her. Cinder tried to speak but only managed to make quiet exhaling noises as she did earlier. Emerald leaned in to hear her.

"Pathetic." Watts turned to Cinder. "Why did you even bother to come here?"

The sound of a heavy metal door being unlatched was heard as the doors opened. Everyone stood before Salem as she entered the meeting hall. Gliding alongside the table with soft footsteps before reaching the head of it, she stopped, facing away from them and toward a candle and crystal display.

"Arthur Watts." Salem turned to them. "Do you find such malignance necessary?"

She gestured for all members present to sit down as Watts answered, "My apologies, your grace. I'm not particularly fond of failure."

The two took their seats at the table. "Then I do not see why you are being so uncouth to young Cinder." Salem scolded him. "She has completely assumed the mantle of Fall Maiden, destroyed the tower of Beacon, and above all, killed dear Ozpin. So I must ask- what failures are you referring to?"

"Well, the girl with the Silver Eyes." Watts began.

"Yes. We've dealt with their kind before." Hazel added. "How is it that a novice, a mere child, was able to best one of us?"

"My thoughts exactly. Even without her new power, it should have been effortless."

"It is because of the Maiden's power that she is injured. Make no mistake, Cinder, you hold the key to our victory. But your newfound strength brings with it a crippling weakness. Which is why you will remain by my side as we continue your treatment." Cinder sadly lowered her head. Emerald looked at her in worried sympathy. "Dr. Watts, you are to take her place and meet with our informant in Mistral."

"Of course."

Salem turned to Tyrian. "Tyrian, I want you to continue your hunt for the Spring Maiden."

Tyrian laughed insanely. "Gladly."

"Hazel. I have received a report that Cinder's ally, Adam Taurus, has disappeared from his hiding place in Mountain Glenn. I need you to find him and uncover his intentions."

"As you wish."

Cinder raised her finger, which Emerald failed to notice for a moment. Emerald leaned in to hear her as Cinder quietly rasped into her ear. Emerald straightened herself thereafter.

"Speak, child." Salem gestured her.

"She wants to know..." Emerald hesitated. "What about the girl?"

Dr. Watts scoffed. "What about her? This is Cinder's problem, not ours."

Cinder slammed her fist onto the table and glared at Watts, giving her a grin.

"That's enough." Salem ordered. "Tyrian?"

"Yes, my lady?"

"Spring can wait. Find Ruby Rose..." Tyrian giggled elatedly and clapped. "And bring her to me." Tyrian froze, groaning in disappointment, then pouted for a second, and finally gave her an acquiescent shrug. Salem turned to Cinder. "Because of your efforts, Beacon has fallen. And Haven will be next."

Everyone rose from their chairs and began to depart. Tyrian snickered at the new fall maiden, pointed to his left eye. He laughed wickedly. "Eye for an eye."

He went into an uncontrollable fit of manic laughter as Cinder gritted her teeth. "Tyrian, I would like to speak you privately." Salem spoke to him.

"Certainly, my lady."

Cinder rose from her chair and left him behind, shutting the door behind her.

* * *

Light snow fell down as James Ironwood stood outside a building in the city of Atlas. This building, the Atlesian Council meeting hall, was a white stone building with a small staircase leading up the doors, surrounded with white marble columns opposite on each side of the entrance. The building itself was constructed in the style of a three story house with a portico at the entrance. The entrance was a dark blue double door with a white lining around it.

Not only was it one of the oldest buildings in Atlas, it was also where the Atlesian Council was meeting to discuss post-fall-of-Beacon measures to take in order to prevent war. The headmaster of Atlas Academy looked at his scroll for the date and time.

 _16:30_

 _December 29th_

He also had a message on his scroll that he didn't notice until now.

 _Admiral Sidon- General Ironwood, where are you? (30 m ago)_

The general pocketed his scroll and entered the building. He entered a medium sized room lined with dark blue carpet, continuing throughout most of the building. The walls in the building were pale blue, contrasting the white ceiling above him. To his immediate left, above a grand fireplace, adjacent to a white sofa, fur rug and dark wooden table, was a framed portrait of Atlas's last king. To his right, above a thin dark wooden table, hung picture of Atlas Academy in its present day.

Adjacent to that said table was a clipboard with a paper form, a pen, a few pens in a black cup and some post-it notes. Ironwood took one of those notes, a pen and wrote down, _Get Yang a robotic arm to replace the one she lost!_

He folded the note in half horizontally, put it in his shirt pocket and proceeded to go down the hall, lined with dark blue banners of Atlas's symbol about thirty feet apart from each other. Eventually he came to a much wider room with a long white carpet in the middle of the room and huge double doors to his right. To his left were two large square windows, one on the left side and one in front of him. He turned to his right and saw an employee working here staring at him.

"Ah, General Ironwood." He folded his arms. "You're late."

"I'm aware, and I apologize for my tardiness. Has everyone else arrived?"

"Everyone else has already checked in."

He sighed. "I should have known."

Ever since the fall of Beacon's CCT tower, and the entire CCT network being down as well, the Atlesian Council meeting hall had done some renovation to allow council members to stay overnight while waiting for other attendees to arrive. Everyone else had arrived before him.

"Do I have to summon everyone to the meeting hall?" Ironwood asked.

"No need. They're already waiting for you. This is the third day you've kept them waiting."

"In that case, I better get in there."

General Ironwood opened the doors to the meeting hall. The room was about half the size of a tennis court, with navy blue walls lined with a column of a fleur-de-lis pattern every ten feet apart and a snow pale ceiling. The wooden floor was mostly bare, save for the rectangular table and its chairs. The chairs were upholstered with blue fabric and decorated in a repeated pattern of the symbol of Atlas. At the front end of the table was an empty chair, the head of the table where Ironwood sat during these meetings.

The general looked at the council members sitting at the table- On the left side, closest to him, was a middle aged man with black hair and ocean blue eyes wearing an Atlas military uniform with small badges and a bigger badge on his right side. This was Admiral Sidon. To his left was Jacques Schnee, head of the Schnee Dust Company.

On the right side, closest to Ironwood was an older man in his mid 50's, his grey hair thinning, leaving him partially bald. He wore black dress shoes and a black business suit with a white necktie. The necktie had a few green lines going upward in a spiral pattern.

And finally, beside the old man was a younger woman, in her late 20's or early 30's, with short black hair and green eyes. She wore black eyeliner and green eyeshadow along with big green tinted metal hoop earrings. She wore a black, long-sleeve dress that reached to her knees paired with black heels.

A cool yet not bone-chilling air felt throughout the room was made even colder by the silence. No one said a word as the headmaster of Atlas Academy entered the room. Did they not notice? Or were they angry with him? He reached the table and stood next to his seat. "I apologize for my tardiness and for keeping you all waiting on me." Ironwood addressed the council members. "Now, shall we begin the meeting?"

"Uh, Mr. Ironwood? Aren't you going to address the elephant in the room?" the councilwoman asked, motioning her arm over to Jacques.

"What do you mean by..." He looked closer and saw who she was talking about. "Oh."

"Is there a problem?" the head of the SDC asked.

He gestured to the young man standing by Jacques's side. "Mr. Schnee, who is that young man and why is he here?"

"This is my son, Whitley. I brought him here for a business trip that he may learn what it's like to be part of a business meeting."

The old man looked at Jacques, very clearly annoyed. "Couldn't you just take him to a Schnee Dust Company Executive Board meeting?"

"The board has very few members. We're short several members due to White Fang attacks for the years. There's only two other members that live in Atlas, and there's no guarantee that the other remaining three would be able to safely make it to the Schnee Dust Company Headquarters. Besides, Whitley won't interrupt the meeting. You won't even know he's there!"

General Ironwood gave Whitley a skeptical, questioning look. "And how do I know that you won't reveal confidential information by being here?"

He maintained his usual smile. "You have my word. Anything that is said here will stay here. My lips are sealed, General." After he said that, he took his left hand, pinched his thumb and index finger together and ran them over his lips.

"If you don't believe his word, perhaps he can sign some sort of confidentiality agreement?" Jacques suggested.

Ironwood sighed. "Unfortunately, we don't have any documents for that purpose. I'll just have to take his word that he'll be silent." He turned to the council members. "Let's get on with this."

"But..." the councilwoman began, only to be ignored.

"I officially call this meeting to order." Ironwood sat down. "As you are all aware, Atlas is being blamed for the fall of Beacon Academy. This is mainly because the robots that were supposed to protect everyone were hacked by an unknown infiltrator. Despite my attempts to get with the councils of Vale, Vacuo and Mistral- which if I be honest, have gotten me nowhere- the kingdom's councils, as well as most of the world, see us as responsible. No one has declared war yet, but if we want to have any chance of maintaining peace, we have to find a way to show the world that we do not wish to start a conflict."

"Why don't you just send a group of technicians over to Vale to repair Beacon's CCT tower?" Sidon suggested. "Then once that's done, we can reassure the world via a live broadcast from Atlas Academy that you mean no harm."

"Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. After the top of the tower fell down, a Wyvern, a species of Grimm previously thought to be extinct, was petrified on the top of the tower. Unless that dragon is dealt with, no one can work on repairing the tower. Not only that, the Grimm dragon attracts other Grimm to the remains of Beacon Academy. Glydna Goodwitch, along with most if not all of Beacon Academy's staff, are currently trying to solve this problem as well as repair the city. Because of these circumstances, I can not foresee the CCT being restored any time in the near future."

The admiral frowned. "Well that throws a wrench into my idea."

The old man turned to Ironwood. "You mentioned an unknown infiltrator who hacked the androids. Were you able to discover any clue as to who was responsible for the hacking into them?"

"Nothing with any solid proof." he answered. "I did discover the same person who hijacked the broadcast also rigged some of the Vytal Festival tournament matches, but whether or not they shoulder the entire blame for what happened is another story. Even then, whoever that woman is, she could be anywhere by now."

"That woman mentioned that she was from Mistral. Do you believe it is possible that she fled back to her home?"

Ironwood answered, "Not likely, especially considering everything that is happening in the kingdom right now."

"But do you actually believe that she's from a Mistral?" the councilwoman asked.

"What do you mean by that?" the old man inquired.

"She could have just been lying about her nationality to create more fear. She already lied about Atlas military presence being used for malevolent purposes." she elaborated.

"I don't think she's entirely a liar." Admiral Sidon suggested. "I mean, she was right about General Ironwood keeping the existence of Penny Polendina as a robot with an aura secret from the world, from the entire council and even me."

The old man asked him, "You didn't know?"

"No, I didn't." he answered, glaring angrily at Ironwood. Whitley tensed up as Sidon screamed, "Why would you keep something this important from me?! From the council?! From the world?!"

Ironwood sighed. "Poe, I know you're angry with me, and you have every right to be. I did not mean to keep the truth hidden forever. Penny was not just an experiment. She was a person, with a heart and soul. To be honest, when she was first being created, I didn't even believe that it would work, but it did."

Poe Sidon looked at his fellow military officer with a raised eyebrow. "So why did you create her? Or rather, what was her purpose?"

"She was supposed to become a protector of the world, to take on missions that no android or human could. Unfortunately, due to the chaos of the Vytal Festival, she was unintentionally destroyed."

"How can you be sure that it was unintentional?" the old man questioned. "First we saw Yang Xiao-Long, another Beacon student, attack an innocent victim after the match ended. Then we saw Pyrrha Nikos tear the girl apart."

"First off, I saw first hand how horrified Pyrrha was after using her semblance to deflect Penny's swords. Second, after the ashes settled, I found Pyrrha herself in the Amity Colosseum and briefly heard her apologizing to the remains of Penny. Some things aren't entirely what they seem."

Whitley's mouth hung slightly open before he began musing to himself. Jacques stammered, "S.. she's alive?"

"Yes, as far as I can see." He gave Jacques a look of leeriness. "What made you think she was dead?"

"Well..." His mind quickly trailed back to him dragging Weiss away from Everbright Hospital while waiting for Pyrrha to recover. He truthfully stated, "There have been several news sources in Atlas, as well as some in other kingdoms, that say Pyrrha is dead. They all claimed her body was never found, which also sparks debate on what happened to her."

"Hmm... Most unusual." Admiral Sidon noted.

"You know, a thought just occurred to me." Jacques said. "Perhaps what we could do is crack down on stopping the White Fang. After all, they are the ones at fault for the Fall of Beacon."

"It may be true that they were present, they were not the only ones at fault." Ironwood responded. "No one knows entirely who is at fault. And since we can't determine who's at fault, there's no easy way of trying to prevent war. So we must find ways to minimize the damage if a war were to start. I purpose the solution of forbidding Schnee Dust Company exports to other kingdoms until tensions die down."

"If anyone even thinks about trying to declare war on us, they will be at disadvantage and that would, hopefully, allow them to think twice before making a rash decision." the councilwoman said.

"Hmm... Not the best solution, but it might be the only way to stop a war from breaking out." the old man added.

"But..." Jacques tried to protest.

James raised his left hand. "All in favor?"

The councilwoman raised her hand, followed by the the old man. It was 3-2. And since Ironwood held two seats on the council, it was actually 4-2. Either way, Jacques was going to lose a lot of money.

"Then it is settled." Ironwood declared. "The Schnee Dust Company will be forbidden to export dust to the other kingdoms." Whitley frowned at this mention. "This embargo takes effect immediately. All of the ships and bullheads that have already departed this morning will be allowed to continue, but any other shipments sent from Atlas to the other kingdoms will be found and confiscated. And Jacques-" Jacques looked at an angry Ironwood with his eyebrows raised in fear. "if you try to ship it illegally, you will be fined 100,000 Lien for every instance this occurs."

Whitley silently looked on in fear, although no one noticed his worried expression. Jacques asked, "Don't you think this is a little much?"

"We're just making sure you'll comply with this new ordinance. You've bent the rules before." Ironwood rose from his chair. "This meeting is now adjourned."

General Ironwood was the first to leave, and most of the council members followed thereafter. Except for one. The head of the SDC clinched his fist and his son turned to him, concerned. Jacques looked at Whitley. "You may speak. The meeting is over."

He breathed in to steady himself. Two seconds later, he gave his response. "Well... That went less than well."

"I will admit it did not go as I had hoped, but there is little we can do at this time."

"How do you believe Weiss and mother will react to hearing of these events?"

"Willow probably won't take it very well. As for Weiss, she won't be happy about it either, but I would think that after the Fall of Beacon, that she would quickly bounce back from hearing the news."

"I sure hope so."

The head of the Schnee Dust Company stood up. "Don't underestimate her. The future head of the SDC is stronger than you realize, Whitley."

The father and son duo began to exit the room. As they exited the meeting hall, Whitley began musing to himself.

 _He should have made me the heir when Weiss chose to go to Beacon Academy and leave her family behind._ He internally sighed. _Then again, you know the rules of inheritance- the oldest is always first in line, and the youngest has little to no chance of getting the throne. The longer the line, the less chance the youngest has to inherit anything. What chance do I have of becoming the heir to the Schnee Dust Company? At this present time, none. None at all! Weiss doesn't deserve to be next in line for the SDC. I do!_

As they walked through the hallway, his natural expression never once revealed the emotions hidden within. He got out a paper notebook, a pen and began quickly writing.

"Trying to quickly write down what you've learned, are you?" Jacques asked.

"Indeed I am." Whitley answered.

"You're really smart, aren't you?"

"Yes, yes I am." He smiled. "But thanks for telling me."

"You're welcome. It's a shame that Weiss didn't come."

He gave a small frown in response to Jacques's statement. "Yes... it is..."

The scene transitioned to the two standing outside the building with the luggage on a golden platform behind them, being pushed by a servant from the Schnee family manor. They walked forward into the snow, making their way towards the airship they used to get there. With a neutral expression, Whitley held his pen in his left hand and notepad in the right as he finished writing. Holding his arms down, he got onto the plane and took his seat, his father not too far from him, the servant straining to get the luggage cart aboard the ship. As Jacques spoke to the servants and workers aboard the private jet, Whitley smirked as he looked at the top line, written in beautiful cursive print-

 _Pyrrha Nikos is alive._


	44. Mirror Mirror

Mirror Mirror/Who's the Loneliest of All?

* * *

The dark moonless sky slowly changed from a dark blue to a lighter shade. A sun slowly rising was reflected in the eyes of the current watchguard. Nora, who was sitting around the campfire in the snowy forest, stood up from the log and stretched out her legs, trying to wake herself up before waking up her allies.

"Wake up, sleepyheads!" As her cohorts woke up, she continued in a sing-song tone, "It's morning, it's morning, it's morning, it's morning!"

As Ruby woke up, she curiously thought to herself, _Is she always like this?_

"Alright, Nora.. I think they got the message." Ren said to her.

Jaune got out of the tent and began to stretch his arms. A few moments later, Pyrrha yawned as she crawled out of the tent and stood up. "I'm surprised she's wide awake after her shift."

"That's Nora for ya." Ren smiled.

"It feels like it's early." Ruby said.

The lotus warrior looked at his scroll. "It's 7am. You guys want me to prepare breakfast before we get on the road?"

Everyone said yes and nodded in affirmation, so he got to work. As Ren got to work on his breakfast stew, Pyrrha knelt back down and grabbed her red cloak and white gloves from her tent.

Ruby thought to herself, _I've noticed Pyrrha wearing that cloak a lot, as if she's trying to hide herself. But why would she want to hide herself? Then again, that's not the only thing that... Wait.  
_

"Hey um, Jaune?" Ruby asked nervously.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"You said that Cinder Fall was the wielder of some kind of powerful weapon. What exactly is that powerful weapon?"

"Well..." Jaune began. "When Cinder went to the vault, she found a retrieved a powerful weapon called the Sword of Autumn. Anyone who wields it is given incredible power that makes them really dangerous to fight up against."

Pyrrha quickly nodded in affirmation.

 _That's strange. I vaguely remember Cinder having some sort of ability, something with fire. But I don't remember her having a sword._

She shrugged it off as she and everyone else got a portion of Ren's breakfast stew- potatoes, pieces of bacon and some apples chopped up into pieces with a small bit of cinnamon infused into the dish.

Her thoughts continued as she ate, _Then again... Qrow told me about silver eyes. It seems that this silver eye power is magical in nature. Is it possible that Cinder has magical powers as well? If so, what are they? I don't know. Do Pyrrha and/or Jaune know? That can't be right. If they knew, they would have told us, right?  
_

As everyone finished their breakfast, Jaune said, "Alright, let's pack our gear and get going."

The quintet finished packing up and moved out. They were on the trek to the nearest coastal city.

The young blond looked at the map and spoke, "Alright, the nearest port shouldn't be horribly far from here. From there, we should be able to get back to Vale and then find an airship to Mistral."

"Shouldn't we be heading back to Fiti?" Ren asked.

"You make a good point." Jaune said. "And I'm an idiot. Looks like we'll be heading there one more time."

The quintet was able to find a small passenger boat to Vale only hours before it's departure. By the time the ship got to Vale, two days had passed. The scene transitioned to a dark night sky with a few stars. As the group of former Beacon students waited for the boat to dock, Pyrrha, still wearing her white gloves and red cloak, grabbed her scroll and looked at it for the date and time.

 _11:30 pm_

 _December 31st_

The new year was almost upon them. Too bad there would be no celebration. As the boat came up to the port, the red-haired warrior pocketed her scroll and put her hood back up. A metal ramp served as a walkaway, and the heroes descended down it, first Pyrrha and Jaune went down, hand in hand. Next was Ren and Nora, walking side by side, their hands only a few spaces apart. And finally, Ruby came down, joining her friends on the docks. Jaune looked around to be sure everyone was there and they proceeded to walk forth.

"Man... This place has become a near ghost town." Jaune noticed.

"Almost everyone has left the city." Nora responded. "While me and Ren had internships at Beachside News, we learned about how more Grimm attacks have been occurring in Vale. I've been trying not to think about it too much, but now... that we're actually here... I can't really lie to myself anymore."

They took in the damage. Over half the city had been destroyed, especially the areas nearby Beacon. Out of the corner of their eyes, Pyrrha and Jaune noticed the building that was once Edom's Electronics Repair was closed down.

 _I hope he's okay,_ they both thought to themselves.

Ruby looked discouraged. "But isn't Beacon's staff supposed to stop them from attacking?"

"They are, but between rescuing civilians, aiding those displaced by the attack, trying to clear out Beacon Academy's Grimm and everything else, they've had their hands quite full." Ren elaborated.

She looked at Jaune sadly. "Shouldn't we do something?"

"Even if we did, we wouldn't be able to solve all their problems. If we did, we'd be stuck here for months." He turned to his significant other. "And Pyrrha is the one with a huge promise to keep."

"But it's not like we're under huge pressure to make it back to Mistral immediately." She looked at her white gloved hands. "Maybe there's something we can do, even if it's just one simple thing."

"But what?"

Before anyone could answer Jaune's question, Nora smelled something and scrunched her face in a look of disgust. "Ugh! Do you guys smell that? Smells like something burnt."

"Not burnt. Burning." Ren answered as he pointed to a section of the city about a mile away, completely on fire with Nevermore swarming the area along with other Grimm.

Ruby looked at the burning buildings in despair. "Oh no..."

"I think that would be it." Pyrrha said.

"Let's move!" Jaune commanded.

Ruby wasted no time running manually. As soon as she heard Jaune's command, she used her semblance to carry herself faster, leaving a trail of rose petals behind as she jumped into the fire. The members of team JNPR ran forth towards the burning section of the city. As the quintet went forward, they all knew that they were going out of the frying pan and into the fire.

* * *

[cue RWBY Music-Mirror Mirror Part I]

Meanwhile, in the Schnee Family Manor, Weiss's fingers glided across the white keys of the piano, occasionally striking the black ones with the tips of her fingers. After a series of notes and chords, she began to sing. As she sang, the piano decided an even sadder part of the song. After a brief pause, she began playing as she continued singing the first verse. As she ran through the rapidly ascending and descending piano scales, the piece changed from one minor key to another and she let her mind wonder.

As her mind was in two places at once, she thought back to her days at Beacon Academy. When she wasn't alone...

"Come on, Weiss! Hurry up!"

The music adopted a quieter dynamic, as she sung an aria.

In the courtyard of Beacon Academy, Weiss was struggling to keep up with Ruby. Ruby had already reached the fountain where the rest of their teammates were waiting.

"But we got here before you guys. What's your excuse?" Blake inquired.

"Oh stop it." Yang said to them. "I'm sure Ruby's just excited. It's the first weekend where we're not slammed with homework and actually have a bit of free time."

"Come on girls, the movie theater awaits us!" Ruby exclaimed.

As the team ran forth, the piano went through a crescendo and Weiss's voice sang the final verse.

"Hey!" Weiss called to them.

The heiress tried catching up with them, but was having a difficult job doing so. Still, she smiled as she ran to catch up with her team. As she came out of her flashback, she sang the final words of the song and played the last few notes before ending on a third.

She sighed as her hands drifted away from the keys of the piano. "No matter where I go, or what I do, I'm always the loneliest of all."

 _I thought I wasn't lonely. I thought I could have it all. I thought I could make a difference._ she internally sighed. _Look at how wrong I was._

As she departed from the piano room, she went down the hallways, light coming in through the windows. But then why it feel like no light was left? That only darkness remained? She had no idea. As she made her way to the garden, she stood before the stairway with a set of stairs to the left and right. Coming down from the right staircase, her eyes laid eyes on Whitley, her younger brother, standing near the foot of the steps.

"Good afternoon, sister." The teenage boy stood before her with his hand his chest, giving her a bow as she slowly went down the steps. "It's a pleasure to see you out of your room for a change. Unless you did so while me and father were away."

Weiss sidestepped upon reaching the bottom of the steps, turning to speak to him, and since he moved to face her, the two of them briefly circled each other.

"Hello, Whitley." Weiss greeted him. "You're in a cheery mood today."

"The meeting was an interesting learning experience." He clasped his hands behind his back, giving her a smirk. "I might even say it was a bit fun, studying their speech patterns and their expressions."

Weiss asked him, "What do you want?"

"Well, I'd love to tell you what happened at the meeting, but since I swore to the general not to say anything, you'll have to find out from father what happened. I'm sure he'll tell you what you need to know."

"I'm sure it won't be anything extremely important." She gave him a questioning look. "You seem... different."

Whitley said to her, "You've been gone for quite some time. I'll have you know I didn't stop growing while you were away at Beacon."

 _That is true._ she thought to herself.

"True." she stated aloud. "I'm going to try and speak to mother."

"Good luck. You'll need it."

Weiss walked away, softly saying, "Thank you." as she passed by.

She went further down the hall, eventually finding her father standing there with a clipboard and pen in his hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Weiss's presence. He looked at his daughter curiously. "Weiss? What are you doing here?"

"Oh hello, father. I was on my way out to the gardens to see mother."

"I see. Did Whitley inform you of the events that happened as a result of the meeting?"

"No, he didn't. He said that I had to ask you because he swore not to say anything. What did happen?"

"The council placed a dust embargo and now Atlas is forbidden to ship dust to other kingdoms."

Weiss raised her eyebrows in response. "Well, that's... not good."

Jacques sighed deeply. "No, it isn't. This is going to cost me heavily. Once word reaches the other kingdoms, the Schnee Dust Company..."

Weiss tuned out some of his conversation.

 _He's only concerned about his company and their public image._ the heiress thought to herself.

"...and that's why I'm thinking of monopolizing dust companies in Atlas."

Weiss, unable to stand her father's greedy scheming, silently slipped away without his notice. The snow angel was in the halls, silently gathering her thoughts. She reached the entrance to the garden and slumped her back against the opposite wall.

 _I'm the heiress of the company. I should be concerned about this embargo, but yet, if I be honest, I really don't even care. Why don't I care?_

Weiss was emotionally exhausted. She had been depressed with the destruction and lives lost in the fall of Beacon Academy. She saw people injured, including her teammate Yang. She saw people die. For many weeks, she anxiously and fearfully waited on the thread of hope that Pyrrha had been saved and that her attempts to keep her promise. But when the news came, the little thread of hope was ripped out of her hands and disappeared. Was it possible that she was running or ran out of emotion? Was she slowly becoming numb to cope with it all? Or is it that she didn't like her father, knowing some of the things he had done? And that there could be more than she realized?

"Are you alright?" a voice asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Weiss turned to her brother. "I suppose so."

"What did he say to you?"

"He told me that Atlas has a dust embargo, and how it's going to affect the company."

Whitley gave her a curious look. "Anything else?"

"No, that was it. Was there something else he was supposed to tell me?"

"I don't believe so. That is all. If you need me, I'll be in my chambers studying."

Weiss was too depressed to care as Whitley walked away. As soon as he was far enough away from Weiss and other prying eyes, the youngest Schnee smirked.

He mused to himself, _The seeds of deception have been sown. Perfect.  
_

* * *

Blake and Sun stood on the rooftops of a city in Vale.

Sun chuckled. "So you really made a sheet dress to sneak into Senior's club?"

Blake nodded. "I did. You want to see what it looks like?"

"Sure."

"Alright then, close your eyes." Sun did as was told. The catwoman grabbed the sheet and the small black ribbons, wrapping the white sheet around herself and tying the ribbons to recreate the sheet dress she wore to sneak into Senior's club, the Black Key. Sun kept his hand over his eyes as she added the final touches. "You may open your eyes." He removed his hand and gazed upon her outfit, slightly gasping in awe. "Obviously I was wearing the black bow instead of the white one, but this is what I wore to sneak in."

"You look gorgeous in that outfit."

She dismissed the notion. "Heh. Come on. I looked like a mess that night and I still do now."

"No, you look beautiful." He took her hand and gently kissed it. She secretly grinned and rolled her eyes. He then noticed... "Um, Blake? What's with the ring?"

She held her hand up, showing her silver ring with black diamonds and red rubies. "Oh, this?"

"Yeah. It looks like a wedding or engagement ring, but you're not even married, and you're a bit young to be getting hitched, so that can't be the case."

She hesitated, pulling her hand away. "It's not quite a wedding or engagement ring, but... it's pretty close."

"A promise ring?" She nodded. "But I never got you one. Who... who gave it to you?" She turned away sadly and sat down on the rooftop away from him. He sat right next to her and looked at her in sad concern. "Blake?"

"Sun... The person who gave me this ring... was... Adam."

Sun gasped. "Adam? As in Adam Taurus? The same guy we're going after?!"

"Yes. The leader of Vale's White Fang branch, the man we are hunting down, the man who severed Yang's right arm... was once many things to me. For the longest time, he was a friend..." She began to hesitate and her speech slowed down slightly. "for most of the time I knew him, a mentor, and, the year before Beacon Academy..." She spoke softly, "my boyfriend."

"But why? How could you ever fall for a guy like him?! A criminal, a terrorist?!"

"Sun..." She looked at the ring on her finger remorselessly. "I think it's time I tell you... The story of the beauty and the beast. A tale as old as time. This... is the story of me and Adam. However, I must warn you- this story doesn't have a happy ending."


	45. From Shadows

Author's Notes;

-Hey guys. Hope you're enjoying the rewritten volume 4 so far. We're going to be taking a brief break from the storyline here for a few chapters of backstory. As such, the italicized thought represents Blake's narration, to be more specific, her POV in the first person. Dialogue and description will be left as it normally is while her internal thoughts with narration are italicized with only one quotation mark at the beginning and end of each thought. I figured this would help understand the readers how I'm laying this out.

-I've had the idea of a 'Beauty and the Beast' Arc in my head for quite a long time, and I always thought that a full on story would be really helpful to the audience to better understand what really happened. Considering that CRWBY has failed to properly and thoroughly explain Blake's past with Adam and Adam's backstory in volume 6 and likely never will, I feel that it is mandatory for me to improve upon their mistakes.

Now, let's begin. (opens a book) "Once upon a time, in a faraway land..."

* * *

 _It all started over a decade ago. Or perhaps even two decades ago. As I said when I mentioned the history of the White Fang to you, t_ _hings were a lot different in those days._ _When the Faunus Rights Revolution came to an end twenty years ago, the White Fang formed as an alliance group between humans and Faunus. They had allied themselves with a council member from Vale, Vacuo, and Mistral. Many believed that things would become better for faunus. Unfortunately, the council member from Vacuo perished in a Grimm attack, Vale's member was murdered by a human supremacist, and Mistral's member backed out out of cowardice, all within two years.  
_

 _The White Fang had originally been centered in the southern edge of Mistral, nearby the coast. That is where, my father, Ghira, ran the White Fang when he was the high leader. When he traveled to Menagerie, he met my mother, Kali Belladonna. He quickly fell in love with her, and she returned his feelings. Within three months they were engaged. The two had planned to establish a permanent residence in Mistral so that they could continue paving the way for equality, but with the death threats being made against them, against Ghira especially, they fled to Menagerie to avoid conflict. When they moved_ _to Menagerie,_ _the primary White Fang base was moved there as well._ _As a result of these events, I was born in the capital city of Menagerie- Kuo Kuana. I will admit, growing up in Menagerie, I never had to worry much about being disrespected, or hurt, simply because of who I was. Menagerie was the only known haven for faunus.  
_

The scene showed a young Blake, no more than two years old, happily looking at Menagerie from the top of her father's shoulders with her mother standing alongside him. The camera zoomed out to show them on top of a cliffside, looking at the city down below.

 _Even though I grew up in the safety and comfort of Menagerie, I had already been part of the White Fang, taking part in marches and boycotts and being told how to distinguish racist bullies from kind humans._ _I was only six years old, and youthful optimist._ _As part of the White Fang's more peaceful forms of protests, we would occasionally go to the mainland to protest. Most of the time we were in Mistral. This time however, we were at Calais, a coastal city on the southern tip of Atlas. Normally, we would be freezing, but with it being summer, the weather was a lot more tolerable.  
_

A six year old Blake stood there with a her cat ears on display for all to see, a black scarf, a light sleeved top, and black skirt with black strap on tennis shoes. She held up a sign reading, _Schnee Dust Company_ with a red circle and slash mark through it. It was a simple, yet effective way to get the message of boycotting the SDC across.

 _I thought we were making a difference._ _I thought we were doing a good thing. Suddenly, everything went wrong. The sound of a gun firing was heard. No one knew who pulled it, or even if it was a real gun or just a sound. Whatever it was, it scared everyone. Before I knew it, I heard sirens in the distance and dropped my picket sign. Horribly terrified and unable to find mom and dad, I fled the scene before the cops even saw me. I ran and ran, as far as my little legs could carry me. The city was huge and I barely even noticed my surroundings or the people around me. All I could think about was getting out of there.  
_

She found herself in an alleyway, the buildings constructing the alley in dark shades of grey. It was a dead-end alley because the passage way to the left and right was blocked by a huge dumpster.

 _I managed to escape potential interrogation with mean human police officers._

"Well, well, well, look what we have here..." a voice said.

 _Unfortunately, I found myself on the wrong side of town._

Young Blake found herself in the presence of three no-good bullies, who appeared to be siblings. The first one, the leader, was the biggest and baddest of them all. He stood at 6'4, so he had to have been in his late teenage or early adult years. He wore a black jersey top with ripped jeans and black boots with dark brown laces. The second one was also a guy, but slightly smaller, likely in his early teens or late adolescence years, wearing jeans, red tennis shoes and a red turtleneck. The third one, a girl, wore a dark blue miniskirt with a light blue crop top and black sandals. They all had the same ginger hair and blue eyes, only for the third one, her hair was styled into a braid.

The first one spoke again, "A cat faunus. What's a scraggly little cat doing here?"

"She's probably hiding from her owner." The second one answered. "Shouldn't cats have an owner, and not be running loose?"

The third one gave an evil smirk to her brothers. "I say we get her."

The trio approached her. "No, leave me alone!" Blake yelled, backing away from the trio. "Get away!"

 _This was before I knew how to fight, and before I had my aura unlocked, so there was nothing I could do to prevent the damage._

Blake was punched in the gut, the face and the arm by each of the respective racists. The cat faunus shielded her arms in an X in an attempt to protect herself, only for the second one to grab her wrists and restrain her. She tried to break free, but to no avail.

The first one pulled out a knife and used his other hand to slightly lift up her sleeve. A tear escaped her eye. "No, please, don't!"

He ignored her plea and used the knife to slash through the sleeve, and then he proceeded to cut her arm with it. Blake screamed out in agony as they tormented her, laughing at her pain.

 _I begged and pleaded them to stop, but they didn't._

"Stop it!" Blake protested. They cut her other arm and ruined her other sleeve, causing her to scream out in agony once again. "Ahh!"

"Why should we?" the girl asked. "Your screams are music to our ears."

The leader put the knife away and they continued to punch and kick at her. "Stop! Help me!"

 _There were a few human spectators that saw the mess, but they didn't do anything to stop. Whether it was because they were scared, or because they thought someone else would intervene, or some other reason, no one dared to get involved. I never felt anger and bitterness because they didn't do anything. All I really felt was sadness and shame. It was also the first time I was ever discriminated against.  
_

Blake was thrown against the wall, softly moaning in pain before falling down.

"Come on, we better just leave her." the leader said.

 _As the racist bullies walked away, more tears came streaming down my face. I brought myself to my knees before sobbing uncontrollably. I tried to hide myself in the darkest corner of the alley, which if I be honest in retrospect, wasn't very successful. But no one saw me. No one else bullied me. I just sat there, shaking and cowering, wanting to be left alone._ _Before I knew it, my light was blocked by someone's shadow_.

"Are you okay?" a male voice asked her.

 _In front of me, stood a boy, about eleven years old with red hair and sunglasses on his face. On top of his head were_ _two reddish-black horns. The boy wore a black hooded jacket with his hood down, a pair of dark blue jeans and black tennis shoes with red laces._

"No..." she answered, still sobbing.

 _He extended his hand to me and helped me up._

"What happened?"

In between sobs, she answered, "I was beaten... hurt... simply because of who I am."

"I know how you feel." He looked at her sadly. "Hurt for who you are, circumstances out of your control... It hurts..." He chuckled a bit. "You got off lucky. Me and many others have been beaten much worse than you just endured."

She looked at him with sad curiosity. "Why? What happened to you?"

"It's... a long story." He looked around, not seeing anyone else nearby. "You look a little young to be here by yourself. You got a family?"

The catgirl raised her eyebrows in fear. "Oh no, my parents, they were at the protest. I don't know what happened, and I'm scared to go back there alone to face the police. Will you come with me to help me find them?"

He smiled. "Of course I will."

 _The two of us made our way back to the site of the protest. Luckily, my parents were unharmed. My father Ghira was just standing there, talking to a few police officers while my mother, Kali, was frantically looking around trying to find me. I called out to my parents, letting them know I was there.  
_

"Mom! Dad!" Blake called out to them.

"Blake!" Kali responded.

"Excuse me if you will, officers." Ghira said before running towards Blake, jumping up into Kali's arms. As she held her, he came up to them and embraced them. "We're so glad to see you're okay."

The boy smiled as the family was reunited. "Are you okay?" Blake asked her parents.

"We're fine." Kali answered. She held her child in her hands and then gasped upon seeing the damage that had been done earlier. "Oh no..." Kali gently set Blake down. "What happened?!"

"Who did this to you?!" Ghira asked.

"I was beaten by three bullies." Blake began answering, sobbing. "Two boys and one girl. They all had red hair and blue eyes. They seemed to be siblings but I have no idea what any of their names are. They insulted me, hurt me. They treated me like I was a wild cat and not even a person."

Mama Belladonna knelt down and threw her arms around her daughter as she sobbed into her chest. "Oh, sweetie..."

"Don't ever believe a word that they said to you." Papa Belladonna told her. "They want to use that to make you feel inferior. You are a person, and a good one, no matter what they may say."

"Thanks dad." Blake said to him.

Kali noticed the young boy standing away from them. "And who might that young boy over there?"

"I don't know. He found me after I was beaten by the bullies. I was scared something happened to you and I was terrified to go alone, so he agreed to help me."

Ghira looked at him curiously. "Who are you?"

"My name is Adam." the bull horned faunus introduced. "Adam Taurus."

"Well, Adam, thank you for helping Blake finding us."

"You're welcome." He put his hood back up. "I better get going."

"Need to get back home?"

He answered hesitantly, "Yeah..." before turning away sadly.

Kali guessed, "You don't have a home, do you?"

"No, I don't." Adam turned away from the Belladonna family. "Home... my home... was lost long ago..."

"You could come with us, to Menagerie." Blake said as she extended her hand to him. "You'll be safe. You'll never be hurt again."

He slowly turned to her, smiling as he slowly took it.

 _And so, the three of us returned to Menagerie with a new friend. Since Adam was homeless, he grew up in the White Fang cell block, being looked after by my parents and other responsible adults in the organization. Oftentimes he'd come over to my place and we'd play tag and over games in the house or the courtyard.  
_

An image of the two playing tag, with Adam being a few feet behind her, was shown.

 _We had become fast friends. I suppose I could say he was the first friend I ever had. A few months later, Adam turned twelve years old. The day after his birthday, he told me that he was going to become a White Fang fighter and go on missions.  
_

The scene showed the two of them on the beach, building sandcastles. Adam was dressed in red swim trunks still wearing his sunglasses as Blake wore a black one-piece.

Blake lifted up a pail as she constructed the castle. "You're going to be a fighter?"

Adam dug out a small area with a shovel to serve as a moat. "I want to be a fighter. I want to see the day where no faunus will have to go through what I went through." Blake turned away sadly. "You're not happy about that, are you?"

"No, I'm happy that you're going to help with the cause. It's just..." She hesitated. "I'm going to miss you." She threw her arms around the bull horned faunus, which startled him at first.

He returned the embrace. "I'll miss you too."

She blinked, a lone tear escaping her eye. "Will I ever see you again?"

He put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Blake. I'll be back again someday."

 _I had faith that he would return. After three years, I began to believe that something may have happened to him. Of course, I was wrong. Two years later, on my 11th birthday, he had come back. My mom and dad had already given me their presents, but there was still one left...  
_

"We have a surprise for you. Think of it as an extra gift."

She smiled curiously. "Okay, what is it?"

Suddenly her eyes were covered by a pair of hands from someone behind. "Guess who?" a voice said.

At first, she was unsure, but within a few seconds, the answer came to her. "Adam?"

He uncovered her eyes and spun her around, confirming her answer. Adam Taurus had changed since he was first at Menagerie. He had grown within these years, now 16 years old, wearing a black jacket and pants, black shoes with red soles and black gloves with red sigils resembling the Greek letter Ω (Omega). He still wore the same sunglasses around his eyes.

Blake smiled upon seeing him again and gave him a bear hug. "Adam! I've missed you! Where have you been?"

He chuckled. "It's a long story."

 _He told me all about his adventures and how he thought of me while he was gone. He still went on missions occasionally, but he wanted some more time with the catgirl he befriended and the White Fang family that took him in. Things were going pretty well for all of us. Until they weren't. Slowly over the course of my tenth and eleventh years on this planet, many White Fang members realized that Ghira's peaceful methods weren't working and that faunus were still subject to discrimination and hate.  
_

 _When I was twelve, they had recently returned from a mission where my father was nearly killed. While returning home, they were encountered by human supremacists, one of which almost killed him. Adam had saved his life, but at the cost of murdering one of them. Sienna had encouraged it, and called Adam a hero, while dad was worried of what people would say and or do.  
_

 _A few weeks later, my father realized that things weren't improving under his leadership._ _And so, in dismay and despair, he choose to step down as High Leader. He gave the position to Sienna Khan, one of his long-time trusted allies. At that same time, both my parents chose to leave the White Fang and Ghira became the chieftain of Menagerie. They left the White Fang because_ _Ghira felt that his methods of trying to bring about equality had failed,_ _they feared Sienna's methods would be more violent and they didn't want to be involved in that violence. I however, choose to stay in the White Fang, despite their protest._

 _Within less than a day, Sienna and a small faction of faunus in Menagerie coordinated the first attack on an anti-faunus store in Mistral. Within less than one week, they started robbing dust from the Schnee Dust Company. Within a month, they pleaded me to leave the White Fang. Of course, I refused._

"Are you sure you that you want to do this?" Ghira asked his daughter.

"How can you just abandon the cause like this?!" Blake angrily asked them.

"Blake, we're not..." Kali began.

"Yes, you are! Don't lie to me!"

 _Without another word, I packed my bags and left my home. That same day, I went to Sienna Khan and pledged myself to the White Fang._

Blake stood before the High Leader of the White Fang, bowing respectfully to her on her knees.

"Ah, Miss Belladonna." Sienna greeted her. "What brings you here?"

"High Leader Khan- I wish become a White Fang fighter. A specialist. I want to truly aid the White Fang. Travel around the world on missions. See to it that faunus are equal to humans."

The tiger faunus smiled. "An admirable reason to pursue a difficult goal. Now, before you rush out onto the battlefield, I must ask- how much combat experience do you have?"

Blake looked down sadly. "None."

"I see. Well we all have to start somewhere. Unfortunately, many of my best combat instructors have already left on missions, which means that I may not be able to start you on your training as soon as you would like..."

The door behind Blake was opened, revealing Adam to be there. "High Leader." He slowly approached her. "My deepest apologies. I did not realize you were busy."

"It's alright. Your friend Blake here has decided to become a fighter." She looked at him, a smile growing on her face. "Say, you have decent enough combat experience, and you know Blake well enough. Would you be willing to teach her how to fight?"

He respectfully bowed to her with his hand over his heart. "It would be an honor high leader."

"Excellent. I wish you good luck in training her."

 _And so, combat lessons began, and Adam was the instructor._

The scene transitioned from the White Fang throne room to a private dojo with a few black and white punching bags. An image of Jacques Schnee was posted onto each bag. Blake stood in front of the punching bag while Adam stood nearby to instruct her.

"First things first. You need to know the basics of hand to hand combat. Anyone with a brain can fire a gun, but there may be times where you don't have a gun, or any weapon for that matter. When that happens, you'll need to know how to use your strength and wits to make it out alive. Try punching the punching bag, like this." Adam clinched his fist and punched the punching bag.

She repeated the motion she was shown. "How was that?"

"Good, but you should have your thumb to the side of your fingers, like this, so that you don't break any bones." he said as he adjusted her thumb to be on the side of her hand, right next to her index finger. "Now try punching the target." She punched it again. "Good."

 _We covered everything. First we started out with hand to hand combat, then he taught me some marital arts moves. Then, after two months of that, we moved on to aura training._

"You have gotten the basics of hand to hand combat down." Adam began. "Now it's time for aura training. Do you have your aura unlocked?"

Blake scratched her head. "Uh... what's aura?"

Adam sighed. "Oh boy... I'm guessing that's a no."

"I'm afraid so. So, how do I unlock it?"

"Well there's a few ways of unlocking one's aura. Usually, it requires training and willpower over time. Sometimes, it can be activated by certain circumstances such as stress. There are some techniques that can instantly unlock ones aura. Unfortunately, I do not know any of them or do I know anyone who does know."

"It's alright. Hopefully, this will be easy."

 _Unfortunately, aura unlocking was not easy. One month had passed, without any results._

"Well... This isn't going as fast as I had hoped." Adam paced back and forth in the dojo. "Most people who are or intend to be aura users unlock it within a week or two. And now it's been a month."

Blake looked sadly at her mentor. "What have I done wrong?"

"I don't know." He slumped his back against the wall. "Maybe I've been thinking about this with the wrong tactic. Perhaps what you need is a new approach."

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

He sighed. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you. The last thing I want is for you to be hurt, but I'm thinking that the only way to get through this block is a trial by fire."

"Fire?!"

 _A week later, we were in Mistral. Adam armed with his signature weapon Wilt and Blush, and me armed with only a simple laser gun that normal White Fang goons would use, we were, quite literally, looking for trouble. Eventually, we found it. We were in a city called Zephyros, a city known for its flowers in the spring and summer time. The mayor of the city had been murdered on a small wooden stage by a group of human supremacists in the midst of her speech. Everyone listening had fled in horror, but the two of us stayed behind. As I looked the group, something seemed familiar. Too familiar...  
_

Blake looked closer at the group and gasped. "No... It can't be."

 _They were the same trio that teased me all those years ago. The leader was now in his late twenties, the second one was an adult, and the third one was a teenager. They wore similar attire to what they wore all those years ago. The only major difference was that the girl no longer had her braid. Her hair was shorter, only a few inches long.  
_

Adam looked at her curiously. "You know these guys?"

"These are the same bullies that tortured me all those years ago!" she answered.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" the leader asked.

"The little cat has wondered off here." the girl answered.

"And she's found a new friend. Seems misery loves company." the second one said.

Blake growled. "Leave him alone!"

"Aw, now why would we do that?" the third one asked tauntingly.

She fired away at the third one as Adam dashed towards the leader. The leader got out a long sword and the swords clashed between the two men as Blake battled the younger siblings. The catgirl kept her distance and fired at them with the laser gun, but the two younger siblings were experts in evasion.

"You can't run forever!" Blake proclaimed.

The second one was knocked down and since he did not have his aura unlocked, got his skin burnt. The first one was knocked out by Adam, and the second one soon followed.

"Is that all you got?" the girl asked.

Blake kicked the girl in the gut, knocking her against the wooden stage, knocking her out. The second one went towards Adam and tried to use his daggers to hold back Adam's sword. Blake and the girl continued to fight, and after a series of blows, Blake was knocked against a pole. Her vision slightly blurred as the third one came in hot and a flash of black took over the screen. In the black, a purple aura surrounded her and she ducked down. The blackness disappeared as the red haired girl stabbed 'Blake' in the heart... Only to have a black image fade away.

She quickly realized that she had been deceived. "Huh? What the?!" She was down kicked down in the head from behind, knocking her out.

The real Blake stood right behind her. Adam smiled. "Seems like you've not only unlocked your aura, you've learned a new trick. Your semblance."

"I have." Blake concentrated and made another shadow of herself. The catgirl and her shadow waved in unison.

 _All three siblings had been knocked out, and were later arrested, thanks to our efforts_. _My aura and my semblance had been unlocked all on the same day. And from there, my rise to a warrior had begun. From shadows, we would descend upon the world, reclaim our destiny and rise above above the darkness._


	46. Cause Mama I'm in Love with a Criminal

_Things were changing in the White Fang, for better or worse. Do you remember the Grimm masks that are worn by the White Fang? Adam Taurus was the one who started it. According to what I was told, two weeks before the encounter with the human supremacists in Mistral where my dad had nearly been killed, he and four other faunus in Atlas stole a shipment of dust from the Schnee Dust Company. That is when Adam started to wear his mask. Although the masks helped to conceal our identities, it probably didn't help humanity see us in a better light. But I didn't question it at the time. I believed that I was doing the right thing._ _A few months after the duel in Zephyros where I unlocked my semblance, I designed my own weapon and got it made for me by a man named David Wycliffe. He was a nice man, and he was loyal to the Fang. I never would have thought that I'd have to fight him to learn of Adam's whereabouts.  
_

An image of David was shown giving Blake her weapon as she smiled with Adam by her side. Still showing the past, Sun presently asked, "Wait. You actually fought him?"

 _Yeah, I did. Anyway, moving on..._ _By this time, Adam had chosen to wear his mask permanently. Although he had been alternating between his sunglasses and his mask for a while, I had not actually seen his face. I had always been a little curious about his eyes, and why he always concealed that part of his face, but I never had the courage to ask him... That is, until that day.  
_

With Gambol Shroud on her back, Blake walked alongside Adam on the beach, the wind blowing her ponytail around.

"Hey, um, Adam? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"I want to know... Why are you always covering your eyes?"

He sighed. "I was always scarred you would ask that. I'm also a bit surprised that it took you this long to ask that question."

"I've been wondering for years. So... are you going to tell me?"

"I don't believe you want to know. You know the old saying, 'Curiosity killed the cat.' If you want answers, I'll give them to you if you take off the mask. But do be forewarned, you won't like what you see."

Adam laid his arms at his side. Blake extended her hand out, but hesitated and pulled it back. She took a step forward and did this same motion, clinching her right hand into a loose fist. Taking another step forward, the catgirl extended her hands towards him, felt the edge of his mask with the tips of her fingers and breathed in, closing her eyes as she lifted the mask from his face. She opened her eyes and gasped.

Once she lifted the mask off his face, she saw a scar in red markings with the letters SDC across his left eye, which was bloodied with a gray iris and a singed eyebrow. His other eye was blue and his right eyebrow was brown. She waited for him to say something, but he was silent.

"Adam..." She repressed a sob. "What happened to you?"

He sighed deeper. "I knew you would ask that. It happened nearly eight years ago, roughly a year before I met you. I was ten and you would have been around five years old. My parents were part of the Schnee Dust Company faunus labor force. Born into poverty, they were both willing to take whatever job they could get their hands on, even if it meant dangerous working conditions, mistreatment and unequal pay. However, when I came into the picture, they were so poor and they had no way to take care of me. Jacques Schnee, the head of the Schnee Dust Company, made them a deal that he would loan them money, but they didn't read the fine print when signing the contract. What they failed to realize was that if they failed to pay off the debt within five years, or if both of them died, I would have to work one year for every one thousand dollars they borrowed.

"Unfortunately, my parents got pay cuts every six months. With that, and with my father dying from mercury poisoning from mining when I was four, it was impossible to pay up the debt within such little time. So I was, in a cruel and ironic way, born into subjugation. My mother was in debt and I was enslaved. They borrowed 75,000 Lien. Not only that, they added extra debt, to keep me enslaved for life. I didn't learn about this, or the contract until much later. I was miserable growing up, and most of my happy memories from childhood are long gone. Forced to work in the mines for dust, I was counseled only by the elder faunus who did their best to help me. But if I be honest, I had the desire to hurt my superiors ever since my first day as a dust gathering slave. On my tenth birthday, however, I snapped."

Blake sniffed. "What happened?"

"My mother couldn't take the cruel treatment of her supervisor. She jumped from the edge and fell down thirty feet, breaking her bones and dying from bleeding. By the time she was found, it was too late. The current supervisor had told me that it was an accident that happened on the job. But the elders told me the truth, and I couldn't take it. It was already hard enough knowing that my mother was dead, especially after my father died, but having to explain that she killed herself and why she could have done it... something snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. I took a chunk of rock that I had gathered from the mine and threw it at his head. He was immediately knocked unconscious. Truth be told, I might have killed him actually, but I screamed at him, telling him how it was his fault my mother died, not even realizing what happened and not realizing how much trouble I was in. Until it was too late..."

"Oh no..."

"Jacques Schnee, as well two other highly powerful businessmen within the Schnee Dust Company, found me and punished me severely. According to what the elders told me, every faunus worker in the mines was stamped with a red SDC mar somewhere on their body. Usually it was on the arm, or on the knuckle of their hand. For reasons unknown, possibly because I was just a child, they never branded me... That is, until I attacked the supervisor. As a result, they branded me on the face, which was not only extremely painful, but also nearly blinded me in my left eye. They did this so that I could never hide from them and to remind me of my place. That I would always be beneath them. Unable to fight against all of them without suffering worse punishment, I ran away in fear and anger, fleeing the city of Atlas. For one year, I was homeless, traveling around to avoid being found by Jacques Schnee and any of his loyal minions."

Blake sobbed. "Adam..." She threw her arms around him. "I wish there was something I could do..." She sniffed and sobbed. "To make the pain go away."

"The physical pain disappeared a long time ago, but the emotional scars won't heal." Adam looked at her. "This is why I want to change the world for the better. So that no faunus should ever have to experience this."

She blinked her eyes in realization before they looked down sadly. "No wonder you were so eager to join the White Fang."

"The White Fang can change things for the better." He looked at her as she looked up at him. "We can change things for the better. We'll start the fires of revolution and change the world. Will you join me in my mission?"

The catgirl wiped her tears away and answered sincerely, "Of course I will."

The bull-horned faunus got out something from his coat pocket. "Then I want you to wear this." He handed out a plain White Fang Grimm mask to her.

She took the mask from him as he put his own mask back on. "Why would I wear this? I have nothing to hide."

"To help conceal yourself. That way they won't be able to identify you if they ever catch you on camera."

She took the mask from his hand and donned it on her face. "How do I look?"

He didn't speak for a few moments, as if he was thinking about his answer. "You look like you're a loyal member of the White Fang, willing to fight until the end."

Blake smiled in response to his answer.

 _I happily wore the Grimm mask on missions. I believed that the White Fang was only doing wrong in the eyes of its opponents. It was the two of us against the world, and while youth kept me from seeing kept me from seeing what the White Fang truly was in my preteen years, my feelings for Adam is what continued to keep me blind._ _Of course, I didn't realize it at first. I will admit that I probably had a crush on him ever since I was thirteen, but I didn't realize it until much later._

Thirteen year old Blake stood in the hallway of Schnee Dust Company facility, fighting off against human soldiers as Adam, Sienna and Ilia fought against Atlesian Knight-130 androids. As Blake fired her gun at the soldiers, her full outfit was seen. She wore black tight fitting pants with a white tank top and black vest with the current red logo of the White Fang. Additionally, she wore ankle high black boots and her White Fang mask, only this time, three vertical claw marks were present on the right side.

As she finished fighting off the soldiers with a kick to the rear, she climbed through the ventilation system and kicked down the door below, landing in the dust storage unit. With her night vision, she saw several crates of dust piled on top of each other. While waiting in the room, she heard the voice of Sienna Khan say, "Adam. Let's move."

The three ran forward into the dark room, their figures outlined in shadow. Blake gave them a smirk. "It's about time you got here."

Sienna blinked. "You're wearing a Grimm mask?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

The High Leader remained silent for a moment. "Never mind that. Let's just get the dust and get out of here."

Ilia got out a box and pressed a red button before tossing it on the ground as it transformed into a large six by six grid dolly. The other members loaded the dust crates onto the dolly and ran off with them. Blake jumped on the dolly, standing on the free space remaining and kept back the human soldiers by firing her gun as the others ran.

A montage began with Adam and Blake attempting to target Schnee Dust Company executive board members, with one getting murdered by Adam stabbing him in the gut while the others got away, then the two of them, plus Ilia, Sienna, Yuma, Trifa and Tukson setting fire to a store by throwing torches through the windows, shattering them. The building had a sign on the outside reading, _No faunus allowed_ and another one reading, _Faunus are the worst!_ The store was soon ablaze and the others ran away. As they all ran, through the street, it transitioned to Adam, Blake, and Ilia running to the docks, finding the White Fang Lieutenant bound in rope by a group of four human supremacists. Adam killed three of them by unleashing the energy from his sword while Ilia took down the last one. Blake untied the lieutenant and gave him his mask back. His custom Grimm mask covered his whole face and had red eyes with thin red streaks streaming to the bottom of the mask. With his back to the audience, he put his mask back on before looking to Adam and Ilia.

 _Many of Adam's missions, both with and without the aid of High Leader Khan, were highly successful. Within two years, he was promoted to leader of Vale's White Fang branch. As a result, many of his missions, as well as mine since I asked to join him, were centralized there.  
_

The two stood in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of a city somewhere in Vale. By this point, Blake wore her black buttoned vest with coattails and a single silver button on the front. Underneath it a white, sleeveless, high necked, crop undershirt and white shorts with a zipper on the front of each leg. She also donned her black low-heeled boots and full stockings with a color gradation of black to purple at her ankles. Her emblem was visible on the outside of both thighs just below her shorts in white. On her left arm was a detached sleeve with a silver cuff around her bicep and black ribbons wrapped around both forearms. A small, loose scarf was wrapped around her neck and a gray magnetic backpack is strapped to her back, hidden by her hair.

Her mask was half-black and half-white with the same vertical claw marks on the right side. As Adam and Blake stood there surrounded by other White Fang members, including Tukson and Ilia, they all looked at the board of the city, with various red dots in different locations, scattered around the city.

She, as well as Ilia, knew what Adam's plan was; they were going to burn down the entire city.

 _'Is this really a good idea?'_ _is what I thought to myself. This was the first time I started to question the methods of the White Fang, but I didn't think much at the time. I just did what I was told.  
_

Before Blake could internally question Adam's methods any further, Ilia gingerly set down a large grate with the words, _Danger_ and _Fragile_ written on each side on black font. She opened the box, revealing glass looking spheres filled with red and bright orange dust, neatly stacked on top of each other.

"A reminder to those unaware;" Ilia began. "These 'super fire' dust bombs are very dangerous. They are fragile and if they are dropped, they will explode on contact. Now then, we have twenty different bombs to set around the city. There's currently sixteen of us here, which means four of us are going to have carry two bombs. Me, Blake and Adam have volunteered to carry two bombs on us, so we need one more to carry two bombs."

"I'll do it." Tukson said.

"Thanks for volunteering." Blake applauded.

"We will set these bombs all over the city." Adam further instructed. "Once you have placed your bombs in the assigned place, inform me via text and get back to the warehouse immediately." He got out a small black box with a red button on the top, currently covered by a small glass box. "Once they are all in place, I will press this button, igniting all of the bombs at once. The city will burn quickly, and with the fire department crew already assassinated, it will burn to the ground. You know which bomb goes where, so get going!"

The White Fang took the bombs and began to set them in different locations. In the dark of night, Blake set the first one down nearby a jail and the second one placed in the mulch of a children's playground nearby a school.

 _Bombs F and G set and secured._ Blake texted.

Blake was on her way back to the warehouse, jumping on the rooftops but then she stopped and thought to herself, _'Is this really right? I mean, there may be a bunch of human supremacists that live here, but there's innocent humans here too. Not to mention little children who...'_

Her thoughts were disrupted as everything began to go wrong. The bombs exploded without warning. As the buildings nearby caught on fire, she tried calling Adam, only to get no response. After three times with no answer, she feared he was in trouble.

Running through the streets as the buildings went down in flames, she called out his name, desperately trying to find him. "Adam?! ADAM?!"

She heard him scream in pain. "Ahh!"

"Adam!"

She ran into the inferno and saw Adam with his arms chained up, being electrocuted. As the center building, the police station burned down, Blake noticed three things; 1. Adam no longer had his mask. 2. Adam's weapon was in the hands of one of the police officers. And 3. There were several dead officers around the remaining five. "What are you doing here?!" Adam asked her. "You're supposed to be back at the hideout!"

"Well, well, another one of your subordinates come to save you, Taurus?" the chief asked. "Well, looks like we get two nasty little animals today!"

"I'd say Noire will be most pleased once she hears about this."

"Blake, run! Save yourself!" Adam pleaded.

"I'm not leaving you!"

Tears fell down her face as she charged towards the police officers.

 _And it was at that point I realized... I was in love with him._

She struck one of them down with her katana before swiftly dodging the gunfire of various dust bullets from the remaining four with her cat-like reflexes. She punched the officer holding his weapon and took it from her. Backflipping to dodge the gunfire, she took Adam's sword and captured the energy of the bullets with it.

"Aren't cats known for running away from trouble?" one of them taunted.

"Shut up!" Blake yelled, cartwheeling to dodge their fire. "I will never leave my fellow faunus behind!"

"A loyal soldier to the end. I can respect that."

One of them kicked her down. "Too bad neither of you will live to appreciate it."

"No." She clinched her fist as she stood up. "We will survive! You can bet on that!"

Blake growled as she shifted Gambol Shroud from its gun from to her katana. Taking her sword and Adam's, she swung both of them down on each of the officers in a pattern of slashes against a black screen, relentlessly murdering them. Their corpses fell down as she quickly cut Adam loose from his bindings and took him by the hand, running for their lives as the scene transitioned to the two of them walking slowly to the warehouse, holding each other up.

"Blake!" Ilia joyfully exclaimed.

"Adam!" a White Fang member followed.

"We were starting to get worried." another White Fang member said.

"What happened?" Tukson asked.

"It's a long story." Adam stated.

 _Away from the public eye, he told me what went wrong. As he was setting up the second bomb, the police officers caught him and Adam tried to blackmail them into letting him go by threatening to set the buildings. As he got the message that the last bomb had been set up, he ignited them all and fought the police officers, but he was overwhelmed by their numbers and was captured. I comforted him, and reassured him that I would always be there for him. We saved each other's lives quite a few times while I was in the Fang, and_ _I wanted to tell him how I felt, but I didn't know how. A few weeks later, I was back in Menagerie_ _at my parents house_ _for my 16th birthday._ _Although they quit the White Fang and I was still in it, I tried to be a good daughter and visit them. I didn't want my relationship with my parents to become strained not overly criticize them for their decision. While staying at home, I asked my mother for advice on how to confess your feelings for someone.  
_

The scene transitioned to Blake in her black nightgown on the upper porch of her family's manor. The moon was shown as well as several twinkling stars in the sky. The catgirl looked up at them.

"Enjoying the night view?"

She turned to her mom and smiled at her before looking back at the stars. "Yeah, I am." Blake turned back to Kali. "Mom, I need your advice on something."

"What is it?"

Blake stammered. "I.. I'm in love with someone and I don't know how to tell him."

"Oh?" She smirked, a grin pursing her lips. "And who is the guy you like?"

"It's... Adam."

Kali touched her right thumb and index finger to her chin. "I see. And do you have any indications that he returns these feelings?"

"None. I know that's probably really helpful." Blake stated sarcastically.

"Hmm. Well, just try to be honest. No schemes, nothing over the top, and be sincere. He may or may not return those feelings, so if he turns you down, try not to take it too harshly. There's plenty of fish in the sea." Kali advised.

Blake smiled. "Thanks mom."

A month later, the two White Fang members stood on the rooftop in the Forever Fall forest. Blake, not wearing her mask, turned to face Adam, who already had his mask replaced with his own redesigned version with whitish-tan with red, Japanese style, horn-like symbols decorating the front and two slits on each side.

"Adam..." Blake began. "I have something to say to you."

"And what might that be?"

She took a deep breath and said with sweet sincerity, "Adam... I.. I love you."

He was surprised, even if she couldn't see his raised eyebrows. "You do?"

"Yes. Adam, you've been my best friend since I was a child. We've always had each others backs, saved each other numerous times. I trust you, and... I love you... I know you probably don't feel the same..."

Before she could say anything else, he cupped his hands around her face and gently kissed her. She gave a moan before surrendering her heart to him. Throwing her arms around his neck, she inched herself to closer to him. Adam snaked his hands around her waist and deepened the kiss. After a few more seconds, Blake broke away, gasping for breath.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"You left me breathless." She answered. She looked at him curiously. "Does this mean that you return these feelings?"

"I do. I've always cared very deeply about you, and you're the only one who doesn't look at me with pity after knowing the truth about my scar. But... don't you think that if everyone knows about us, they'll be questioning our relationship? Because of the age gap?"

The catgirl frowned in response. "Who cares what the world thinks? If they think that it's wrong, then they don't know what this feeling is like."

Blake placed her lips to his and Adam returned the kiss.

 _From there, our romantic relationship began. Roughly two months later, I took him_ _to see my parents. They had already known him for years, but they had yet to see him in this light.  
_

Blake walked into her family home, with Adam not too far from her. "Hi mom, dad." she greeted.

"Blake?" Kali asked. "I thought you were going to be Vale for at least another year."

"I was, but I decided to come here to introduce you to my boyfriend." Blake took Adam's hand and gently held it in hers.

"I'm so happy for you. I'm happy that you were able to find love." Kali smiled. "Many people search for love their entire life, and some never even find it. I'd say you're fortunate to find a guy like him."

"Hmm..." Ghira mused to himself for a brief moment. "I never liked the idea of Blake dating anyone, especially while she's still young, but I suppose of all the men to choose, Adam is the best choice. He's never done anything wrong to her, he cares about her, he's brave, loyal, and most importantly, he's trustworthy."

"Thank you for the compliments, Mr. Belladonna."

"There's no need for formalities here, Adam. You can just call me Ghira. You've been a trusted friend and ally of ours for years."

Adam smiled. Later that evening, the two sat down on a cliffside on the outskirts of Kuo Kuana, with the full moon shining its rays down on them as Adam had his arm around her. The two were laughing.

"Why would I care about what the world says?" Adam asked. "Society is always the judge and jury. They judge anyone who's strange or acts out of line."

The catgirl chuckled dryly, smiling. "That is true."

"Also you're the one who told me not to worry about the age gap or what the world thought of us. But even then, aside from those in the White Fang, and your parents, who else would know and/or care?"

"No one would."

"Exactly. Those evil humans wouldn't understand love if it hit them like a ton of bricks."

Blake looked at him curiously. "Do you really think that all humans are evil?"

"Some of them are evil, at the very least. And we both know who's the worst..."

"The Schnees." they said in unison.

The catgirl nodded in agreement. "That is true."

"Perhaps one day, the Schnees would be gone."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, I do."

"A world without the SDC or the Schnees." Blake looked down sadly. "It seems too good to be true."

"Aw, why do you say that? I thought you were the optimistic one." Adam looked at her, his fingers lifting her chin up. "It may be difficult and it may take several years, but it is not impossible."

"That is true." Blake smiled. "I mean, we've weakened the SDC's hold on the world to an extent. There's a lot of local mom and pop dust stores, especially in Atlas."

Adam grinned. "There's my happy little kitten."

The two leaned in and kissed softly.

 _Okay, brief confession. I will admit, I've had a grudge against the entire Schnee family, including Weiss, for many years. When I first got assigned to be on a team with Weiss, I hid these feelings of animosity from her. She knows that I disliked her, but she still doesn't know the full extent of my former grudge against her._

 _Anyway, moving back to the story..._ _I never once thought that anything could go wrong. Adam was my best friend, and he returned these feelings, even though I didn't think he would. I wanted him. I trusted him. I loved him. It was a perfect image, and how could a perfect picture break into pieces?  
_


	47. Me and My Broken Heart

_Everything seemed to be perfect. The White Fang was stronger than ever, me and my boyfriend were working towards a better future and the world would change for the better. 'What could possibly go wrong?' I said when no one was around. It turns out, a lot. A lot could go wrong. And it did. Three months into the relationship, we started getting into arguments. I had noticed that more and more humans had been dying on missions that Adam had led, and that some of these humans weren't even supremacists, racists or people trying to stop us. Some of them were just innocent humans caught in the crossfire._

Adam and Blake walked into the Forever Fall compound, with the catgirl's arms crossed and angrily moving away from Adam.

He looked at his girlfriend, concerned. "Blake?"

She clinched her fists. "This is all your fault!"

The beast was taken aback. "What?"

"Four innocent humans died, and it's all your fault!"

"It was an accident. I didn't mean for it to happen!" Blake angrily stormed off. "Blake!"

Later that evening, the two stood on the rooftop of the White Fang encampment in the Forever Fall forest. Blake stood there, away from Adam without her mask on.

"Blake, I'm sorry." She could hear his footsteps as he approached her from behind. "I told you it was an accident."

She angrily turned to him. " _Was_ it? This wasn't the first time humans have died on missions you led." Her ears and arms folded. "How many more accidents are there going to be?"

"I don't know. I'm out there fighting for us, and when you fight, people get hurt. What, do you want me to just _abandon_ our cause? Like your parents?" Adam retorted.

Blake's cat ears fell down sadly. " _No_! I'm not saying that! I... I don't know."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought them up. I just get scared when it feels like you don't believe in me anymore."

Blake put her hand on Adam's shoulder. "I never said that."

Adam smiled. "Thank you, Blake. It's good to know I've still got you..."

As the petals blew in the wind, her cat ears drooped as she turned away from him sadly. _  
_

 _It was the first time the two of us had ever gotten into an argument. Five humans died on our last mission. Only one of which was actually hurting or trying to stop us. The other four were innocent... In retrospect, I feel that I should have reminded him of that. But.. I didn't. I thought it would be the last time. But... it wasn't._

A montage began with them in the streets of a city as a group of human supremacists got away...

"You let them get away!" Adam exclaimed.

"It's not my fault the mission failed! How many times do I have to tell you that?!" Blake asked him in anger.

Before switching to them in the city of Mistral, in the middle of the bridge above a waterfall, their backs to the rail...

"And what am I supposed to do? If I do this, innocent humans, including children and babies, will be hurt! Possibly killed!" Blake responded.

"Just do it!" Adam commanded.

Finally they were shown in Olympia, arguing as an infiltrator was taking down their men. The infiltrator had short orange hair and eyes and had several weapons on her back as she cracked a whip.

Adam looked down below as the infiltrator fought down below. "Oh no... This is bad. Really really bad. We've been found out!"

Blake analyzed her moves and fighting style. "No kidding. She's taking them out like a demon!"

"Don't you know who that is? That's Tangerine Arc, the vigilante! You lead her right to us!"

"I didn't lead her here!"

"But how else could she have found us?"

Said vigilante groaned as several White Fang goons restrained her by grabbing her arms. "Argh! Let go of me, you dastards!"

She kicked the guy in the groin, forcing him to let go of her and she wrestled her other arm free before handing on her hands and kicking away her opponents as she extended her legs outward. Tangerine jumped up and fired arrows at the goons that held her, killing one by sending the arrow straight through his head and another one, killing her by an arrow to the neck.

"She's too strong! We need to flee!" Blake insisted.

"No! We're not running! If necessary, I'll fight her. No human ever escapes my wrath!"

"Adam, please... just listen to me! You may not be able to stop her!" He took his right hand and slapped her across the face. "OW!"

The sound of the impact startled everyone, even Tangerine. The tough tomboy was the quickest the regain focus and she began to beat up and tie up several White Fang members, including a blond-haired lieutenant.

"How... how could you?" Blake held the left side of her face in pain as she angrily looked at him before running out of the warehouse.

"Oh gods... Blake!" She ran away, leaving him in the dust. She overheard his commands to the others as she ran. "Guys, fall out, retreat! I repeat, retreat!"

Most of the White Fang members followed her soon thereafter.

 _As we got away from the vigilante, I was very angry with him. I gave him a silent treatment for a week. This was when we were six months into our relationship. It's also when he bought me the promise ring and made his vow._

It was a cold and windy day, the city of Mantle was covered in goosebumps. Blake stood on the rooftop on the building in a black pull over jacket with a dark grey paw print, her arms folded and a dissatisfied look on her face. Adam joined her on the rooftop, but she didn't give him a passing glance.

"You ready Blake?" She walked further away from him, not saying anything. Her visible cat ears dropped in sorrow and anger. "Look, I know you're angry, and you have every right to be angry with me, but I didn't mean to hurt you..." She still gave him the silent treatment even if her expression shifted to a neutral tone. He sighed. "I love you, Blake. I'm really sorry." She looked at him with a mixture of sadness and curiosity as he got out a black box. "I got you something." He opened the box, showing the ring to her. She looked at it in awe. "It's a promise ring. It's a commitment to our relationship, and how much you mean to me."

She blinked in awe. "It's beautiful."

"Can you forgive me?"

For a moment, she was silent. Then she smiled and nodded. "Yes. That was a week ago. And this is now."

He slid the ring onto her left ring finger and held her hand before turning to look into her eyes. "You mean everything to me Blake." He gently embraced her. "If something happened to you or I lost you... I'd... I'd probably lose my mind."

She threw his arms around him. She believed him. She trusted him. The catgirl looked down below, seeing Jacques Schnee, the Schnee Dust Company board members and a huge shipment of dust arrive at the scene via a bullhead. The businessmen walked out of the plane and into her line of sight. "It looks like they're here."

"Well, then. Let's move."

As Adam got out his weapon, Blake got out her weapon and mask. She looked at it for a brief moment before putting it on. After doing this, she got out Gambol Shroud, looked at her partner in crime, nodded in unison with him and dropped down into the fray.

 _I had been foolish enough to believe his lie. I should have left then and there. But I didn't realize it. Because it would be the moments after this that everything_ really _went wrong. Have you ever looked at someone and thought, "They are the personification of this word." The word I used to describe Adam has changed over time. At first I thought Adam was "justice", then I thought he was "passion". But over time, I realized I was wrong. When I left him, I thought he was "lost." He wasn't any of those things. While he was, and still is lost, I now realize that the most accurate word to describe him was "spite"._

 _I still questioned his beliefs and practices. It wasn't until slightly over a year dating Adam, and my encounter with SDC fighters in Kuchinashi that I realized what I tried so hard to deny; that the White Fang aren't necessarily good guys.  
_

Blake looked at her opponent- a teenage boy with black hair and blue eyes- as she leapt overhead and prepared to strike them with her katana, only for him to dodge and fire short energy beams at her with the gun. In midair, she deflected the shots away with her sword her and created a shadow of herself with her semblance. He ran forward and struck it down with his dagger. She dodged back and created another shadow that took a hit.

"Do you really think you're on the side of good?" The teenage boy asked her. The beauty kicked him down and took his gun. "Do you really think the White Fang is a force of good?"

Blake fired at him with his own gun. "What are you talking about?"

The boy evaded her gunfire.

Upon realizing she ran out of ammo, she held out her sword to him, nearly piercing his neck. But he smirked and remained unfazed by her attempt to murder him. "Don't you realize what you're doing is only causing more harm? To both humans and faunus?"

Blake stood there, frozen in fear, contemplating his words. She dropped her sword as the boy turned away to fight her commrades.

"Blake?!" Adam called out in fear.

 _The sounds of gunfire brought me back to reality._ _Everything I thought I knew suddenly seemed wrong._

Blake grabbed her sword and made more shadows of herself, which were destroyed as quickly as they were created.

 _As Adam called out my name, I ran away from him. After running away, I hid myself in a nearby alleyway and found a woman who had been beaten and bruised. She looked like she was in her twenties with long dark brown hair and eyes, olive skin, and red glasses that were broken. She had been beaten and bruised. Likely was slapped a lot.  
_

Blake dropped it and asked the woman, "Are you alright?"

"No... I'm not."

The catgirl looked at her with Grimm curiosity. "What happened?"

"I... I was hurt. I was nearly raped by someone I loved. Or used to love."

Her mouth was wide open in response to her statement. "Oh my gosh... That's... that's horrible."

"I thought I could trust him." She sobbed. "I have to get away from here." She wiped away her tears. "Perhaps I'll head to Argus. And I saw the way he yelled at you. You should get away from your abuser too." She turned her head back the other way. "I can't stay here. I must go."

"Well, good luck to you."

"And you as well."

 _She left without another word. She wasn't going to take being hurt and abused. It was then that I decided I had to get away from Adam. But how?_

The beauty quickly made her way to the nearest arts and crafts store. Much to her relief, the store was deserted when she walked in. She saw the store clerk was asleep, which would make her plan even easier. Unfortunately by the time she was there, she realized she was broke and that the store only accepted cash, which she had none, so she had to steal the black ribbon to make her bow. She took a spool of black ribbon from the wall, went to the bathroom, checked all the stalls to be sure they were empty. Using the blade of Gambol Shroud, she cut off a portion of the ribbon and used it to hide her cat ears, tying it up into a little bow. She breathed to herself.

 _'It'll be okay. Hopefully they won't notice. Maybe I should put the ribbon back? Or should I just leave it here?"_

Eventually, she decided to leave the ribbon there. Hopefully no one would notice or question how it was there. With how she clutched the spool of ribbon, the security camera wouldn't be able to catch it, no one would know what she held in her arms and/or be smart enough to put two and two together.

Sometime afterward, she was back at the White Fang encampment. Adam came up to her. "Blake! There you are! What happened?!"

"I lost my mask and was forced to retreat to avoid a fight. I got myself a bow to hide my cat ears so that they wouldn't recognize me."

"Clever move. Unfortunately, we ran out of masks. I'll get a new one for you soon enough, but with that bow, I don't think anyone will be the wiser."

Blake smiled. "Precisely my way of thinking."

His scroll vibrated and he got it out, revealing a message from Sienna Khan. "Looks like we got a new mission from High Leader Khan. A train has just took off from Atlas with a huge shipment of dust. Dust they gathered by exploiting us faunus. They think that we can be used like slaves. And what other way to show them otherwise than by taking what they've worked so hard to achieve?"

"I wholeheartedly agree."

"I'm glad you see the same."

Adam kissed her fiercely, but Blake did not return it with the same intensity her partner had.

 _The thrill and desire of kissing him, or even being with him, had vanished. But I couldn't just run. Not without a real plan._ _Thanks to our bullhead, we made it to Vale in less than two days. As the bullhead traveled from Mistral to Vale, I formulated a plan to leave Adam and the White Fang behind._

 _As the next few days passed, I got together my supplies; 10,000 Lien stolen from the White Fang put into a separate account, 150 Lien, a debit card tied an account a few hundred Lien meant for emergencies, nine books, clothes and care products, tools, a canteen of fresh drinking water, and enough MREs to last a month._ _As I went to get my water canteen refilled, I overheard bits and pieces of a conversation between Adam and someone else. The voice sounded feminine, but I couldn't hear the entire discussion._

Blake stepped up behind Adam with her hand on her side. "What was that about?"

"Nothing." He answered and began to walk away. "We need to finish preparing. The train will be here at dawn."

Blake followed her mentor and after helping him with the last preparations, the two stood outside his tent. Adam turned to face his beauty. "Well it looks like we got a big day ahead of us."

Blake looked at her beast. "I almost can't believe that Sienna assigned us to do this..."

 _'And what good luck for me.'_ _is what I thought to myself._

"We can't let her down, can we?"

"No, we can't."

She kissed him one last time. The warmth and desire was there, but it soon vanished, replaced by feelings of guilt. By this time tomorrow, she would be gone. She hated him, even if he didn't know it. But she knew that Adam that she knew and loved was gone, and she would be as well.

"Goodnight Adam. Love you."

He gently petted her. "Goodnight, Kitten."

"Sleep well, Bull."

After sharing what would be her last kiss with Adam, Blake was back in her own tent. Her backpack packed up and easily shrinkable. After pressing a button on the side, it collapsed, and she put it away for easy storage. She laid on her back, staring at the ceiling of her tent for a while before falling asleep.

 _I thought to myself that night, 'I can't do this anymore. Adam wants to see humanity crumble, and I can't and won't let that happen. Adam, your plans will never truly succeed. Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation.'  
_

[cue RWBY Music-From Shadows]

The next day, Blake sat down on a rock, watching red leaves floating down in the Forever Fall Forest. Adam came up to her. "Blake, it's time."

She slowly turned toward him. "Okay."

 _It was time. Time for the last mission, time for the betrayal._

A train rushed through the forest as the two slid down the hill and onto the top of the train. Upon boarding it, they entered a car full of AK-130 Androids.

Adam stood close to Blake. "Looks like we're gonna be doing this the hard way."

Without warning, the Androids activated and circled the duo. The catgirl rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic."

One of the android activated the guns on its arms. "Intruder, identify yourself." the robot commanded.

Adam responded by cutting the Android in two and he and Blake proceeded to completely annihilate the Androids in the car. Eventually, they burst out of the freight car onto a flatcar and encountered a horde of Androids running towards them.

"Let's do this." Adam said. After decimating the horde, the two entered a second freight car. Adam opened a box and examined its contents. "Perfect. Move up to the next car." He closed the trunk. "I'll set the charges."

Concerned, Blake asked, "What about the crew members?"

"What about them?"

Adam turned his head around and saw a Spider Droid climbing down from the ceiling of the car. As he moved to fight it, Blake anxiously said to her partner, "Adam." The beauty and the beast attempted to fight the android, but it didn't go well. Adam grabbed Blake before she was crushed by the droid's legs. "We need to get out of here."

Eventually the fight moves out of the car onto another flatcar. "Buy me some time!" he ordered.

"Are you sure?" Blake asked.

"Do it!" he commanded. Blake distracted the droid as Adam readied his next attack. She jumped back to Adam some time later as the droid fired a powerful beam. "Move!"

Luckily, he caught the beam with Wilt. As his body glowed with aura around him, the droid jumped towards him. Adam slashed out with his sword, disintegrating the droid and even affecting the trees in the Red Forest causing their leaves to fly into the air. As Adam walked back towards Blake, he found her on a separate train car standing near the connector between the cars.

 _'It's time to end this...'_

Adam reached out to Blake, about to say something, but whatever he was going to say, he never got the chance. She ended it all with one word. "Goodbye."

The beauty cut the beam with her weapon and the two train cars were separated. As Adam's car slowed down, Blake moved back.

 _As Adam faded from my view, I turned away and looked back no further.  
_

The beauty went inside the train car, took off the ring and put it in the black box, which she put into her left pocket. "Goodbye Adam. My love..."

With that, she pulled the brake on the train to slow it down and then jumped off the train, leaping through the Forever Fall forest.

 _And with that, I left my past behind without a second glance, not even realizing how it would all come back to me._

The view returned to Blake in the present, still sitting in her white sheet dress, her feet dangling over the edge and Sun across from her. The wind blew around Blake, letting her hair sway in the wind as she looked at the promise ring Adam had given her.

"And that's the end of the story." she said. "A modern fairytale. No happy ending. No optimistic vision. Only a world of shattered dreams and broken promises."

A moment of silence passed before Sun asked, "Blake... Can I ask you something?"

She turned towards Sun, still sitting down with her knees to her chest. "Of course. What is it?"

"Do you still love him?"

"No, but... I do still miss the person he used to be. My ally, my teacher, and my best friend. Don't get me wrong, I love you Sun, and I am thankful that you're here alongside me now that my teammates are gone, but... sometimes... I really miss the old days." She looked at the night sky above her and the village down below her. "When it was me and him against the world."

"So... if Adam broke your heart... why do you still have the ring?"

She looked at the promise ring she wore. "It serves as a reminder of what once was. The promise ring was meant to be a symbol of love and commitment, a promise that he loved me and that he would never hurt me again. Now it serves as a reminder of his broken promise." She got out the black box and put it beside her. "I hoped that one day, possibly after graduating Beacon Academy, that I would find him again, speak to him, try to talk some sense into him, help him realize where he went wrong and perhaps even repair the friendship we once had. At the same time, deep down... in the back of my mind... I had always feared that monster would come back... that my past would catch up to me." The nightmare of the Fall of Beacon came over her in a silent black and white version- Adam's return, their fight, Yang's disarmament, and her running away with a crippled Yang in her arms. "And my worst nightmare had come true."

The vision ended as quickly as it began. Sun looked at her, both angry and puzzled at the same time. "So you not only have to face your ex, you have to face someone who was once your best friend?"

Blake slid the ring of her finger and put it back in the box before stowing it away with everything else. "Pretty much."

"That's messed up!"

"Yes, it is, but what choice do I have? Adam is beyond saving at this point. He hurt Yang and caused the Fall of Beacon. And it seems that he won't stop there. If we don't stop him, who knows what will happen?" Sun didn't answer, ruefully looking at his beloved. She sighed. "I suppose I better get out of this sheet dress." She stood up. "Could you close your eyes once again?" He obliged with her order, closing his eyes and covering them with his hand. Blake took the sheet off herself and got into her normal outfit. "You may open your eyes now."

Sun opened his eyes. As he looked her, he saw the moonlight reflect on her white bow, making it seem brighter. "Blake..." He came up to her. "I swear, once we find Adam, I'm going to make him pay."

"Pay for what? He never did anything to you."

He gently took her hand in his. "For breaking your heart. No girl like you deserves to get your heart broken."

"How can you say that after I broke your heart by running away? I'm a heartbreaker. I broke three hearts- yours, Adam's and... my own."

"Your own? But how... is that possible?"

"Sun..." The catgirl hesitated. "I was in love with you when I left you on the rooftops." Sun looked surprised upon hearing this as Blake continued, "When we first met, I will admit that it took me a while to warm up to you, but once I did, I felt really close to you. At the Beacon Dance, I felt that I was beginning to like you, but I was in denial. Eventually, by the time your doubles round match started, I knew I was in love with you. After you and Neptune crushed your opponents, when me and my friends came to congratulate you, I wanted to tell you how I felt. I came close to confessing, but I chickened out. And that wasn't the only time..."

"It wasn't?"

"No. I came close to confessing three times; after your doubles round match, when you found me before Yang and Mercury's match, and on the rooftops before I left. I was a coward, and I warned myself not to fall in love again, lest I risk my heart being broken again..." Her voice began to break and she tried to repress a sob. "Yet, it seems, that no matter what I do..."

"Your heart ends up broken?"

"Yeah..." Blake sadly turned away, tears falling down her face.

"I know this might sound like Adam has already said to you, but I will never hurt you. Emotionally or physically. And if that ever does happen, tell me and I will fix it! The last thing I want is for you to be hurt."

"You're one to talk." Blake said, sobbing in between her sentences. "If anything, I've hurt you. I turned you down on the rooftop, I tricked you into believing the real me was there while I ran away, I've slapped you three times, I accused you of stalking me and I let myself be blinded by rage to fight Corvina when I should have been doing more to help you fight against her sailors. How are you not mad at me? How can you forgive me?!"

Sun was taken aback for a moment, but he looked at her with sad sincerity and wiped away her tears. "Because Blake, I care about you. I want you to be safe. Also, all those slaps and everything, that was before you boldly kissed me and admitted how you felt." He tenderly stroked her head. "I know that the Fall of Beacon was devastating for you as it was for all of us. I thought I was being selfless by going after you, although perhaps I was both selfish and selfless simultaneously. Although you were more focused upon the captain, we both survived, thanks to Xanthe. We all make mistakes. Our first night aboard Corvina's ship, you told me that you felt bad about hurting me and apologized for what happened, which tells me that you've learned from your mistakes. And believed I learned something as well."

She gave him a grin. "And what would that be?"

"Well for one thing, never try to chase after a passenger boat with an oar and a raft." Blake laughed. "That's how Corvina found me in the first place."

"Is that so?"

"It is. It was both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "How is it fortunate that she found you?"

"If she had never found me, I would have been stranded at sea for who knows how long. Or worse, I would have been devoured by aquatic wildlife, my raft could have sunk and I failed to get to shore, died from starvation... I could have easily died out there. While it was unfortunate that she tried to kill me, it is ultimately fortunate because I got another chance to find you and aid you." He gently put his hands on her shoulders. "You gave me a chance, so I will give you one in return."

The two leaned in and their lips met in a soft, sweet kiss. Sun gently put his arms around her as Blake clasped her hands around his waist. The beauty smiled at her new boyfriend. "Thanks Sun."

"You're welcome." He took her hand. "I promise that one day, we will find him and put an end to his evil plans. Whatever the hell they are." He yawned and took his hand back. "Unfortunately, it is not that night. It's getting late."

"What time is it anyway?"

A clocktower in the distance was heard, giving her the answer.

"Happy New Year, ma cherie amour."

Sun softly kissed her, which was returned by Blake gently cupping her hands around his face. After the kiss was broken, she smiled at him. "Happy New Year, Sun."

As the clock chime faded, the scene shifted to Blake and Sun unfurling their sleeping bags and leaning their heads against the pillows. While Sun fell asleep quickly, Blake was left wake awake with her thoughts.

 _Maybe I should have told my team where I was going. I never even sent my parents a message telling them that I survived the Fall of Beacon. I do hope they're okay..._

* * *

Meanwhile, in Menagerie, Kali sat down on a sofa at wooden table as she looked over a letter she held in her hands. Ghira paced about his study at a moderately fast pace, his arms behind his back as he went from the door to the wall.

"Ghira, you've been pacing for the last half hour. Don't you think it's time to call it a night?"

He sighed deeply. "Kali, you should know that I'm not just pacing out of worry. I'm trying to make myself feel tired so that I can actually fall asleep for once." He stopped pacing and walked towards her. "Do you know how many nights I've lied in bed, awake, worried to near death that something happened to our dear daughter?"

"Ghira..." She put the letter on the table, stood up and put her hand on her husband's shoulder. "I know you're scared about Blake's safety and well being. I am too, but worrying too much isn't going to change the situation at hand. Who knows? Maybe she'll come back home."

The Chieftain sighed even deeper. "I would like to believe that, but it's been slightly over three months. If she was going to come back, she would have done so by now. If only there was some kind of sign... that she's alright. Even if I never get to see her again, I just want to know if she's alive and well."

"Wherever she is, I just hope that she's alright."

"As do I."

Unbeknownst to them, a dark humanoid shape with a white Grimm mask and black, spotty skin was seen hanging from a tree with her arm in the dark of night. Her ponytail, which was curled up at the end, was blown around in the wind. The spy smirked to herself before jumping away.


	48. Zombie

Author's Notes:

-Alright, now that we've finished up the Beauty and the Beast Arc, focus is not going to be on Blake or Sun for quite a while. Don't worry, I still have interesting things planned. They've been in the spotlight for quite a while, time to mix things up!

Now then, let's get this show on the road!

* * *

The shadow leapt away from the Belladonna Family Home and jumped into the forest before landing on the ground. As the shadow ran through the forest, the spy's skin changed from black to a fair tone, the darker spots on the arms, legs, stomach and face were more easily seen. The camera angled upwards from the forest to the shattered moon in the sky before transitioning to Fennec and Corsac at the shrine. The spy's shadow was seen on the ground as she entered the White Fang shrine.

"Sister Ilia." Corsac greeted her.

"Glad to see you have safely returned. What news do you bring?" Fennec asked her.

Ilia Amitola removed her mask, showing her light grey eyes with a faintly blue tint. "Blake was not present at the Belladonna Manor. Her parents are worried about her, so much so that I could hear Ghira pacing about his study."

As she answered, the camera zoomed in to a special ear communicator microphone designed to hear sounds far away in her right ear before zooming out to Corsac. He nodded in understanding. "I see. Somehow I predicted that Blake wouldn't be present there."

"Ilia." Fennec began. "I know you just got back from spying on the Belladonnas, but we have another task for you. If you are willing."

The Lizard Girl looked at them curiously. "And what might that be?"

"We want you to find Adam Taurus and aid him in his mission."

"Unfortunately, we don't know exactly where he is." Corsac forewarned. "However, from the letter we have received from him, we can deduce that he is heading towards Mistral. We believe that's where you must go."

She mused to herself, _Hmm... Looks like a new adventure. A new kingdom. Who knows? Maybe I'll find Blake. But... do I even want to see her again?_

The spy answered aloud, "I'll do it."

"Glad to hear your willingness to partake such a difficult task. How long until you're ready to leave?"

"I believe I can be ready within an hour's time."

Fennec stated, "Excellent. We'll set up a boat to take you to southern edge of Mistral, where Miss Celandine's hideout should be. Perhaps if she is there, she can aid you on your quest."

She bowed her head to them. "Thank you, Albain brothers."

As Ilia went up the steps, she stood in a hallway.

 _I know Blake betrayed us, but is it bad that I want her to be okay?_

The chameleon faunus slipped her hand into her left pocket and took out a folded up photo of her and Blake as twelve year old girls. They were smiling as they stood in front of a blue wall and Blake was giving Ilia bunny ears with her fingers.

 _I miss you, Blake... Dah!_ She mentally slapped herself. _Come on, Ilia! Get your head together! You know what the traditional punishment for desertion is- death. But does Blake really deserve death? And does Sienna even know? And what is Adam even up to anyway? Maybe he needs more specialists. But why? Ilia, you're thinking too much. Just find Adam and wait for his orders.  
_

Ilia folded up the photo and pocketed it before walking away.

* * *

Rolling around at the speed of sound, Ruby was able to reach the wreckage before her friends. As she stopped, standing on the cracked street, she could feel the heat of the fire along with a cold chill of fear. Four different buildings were on fire, the first one completely ablaze and three that were partially burning and well on their way to burning completely. Once again activating her semblance, she ran into the first building and searched for civilians. The apartment contained a living room, kitchen and dinning room as well as a carpeted arena with a china dishware set in a glass display case.

After scanning the first floor and finding no fire, she heard a young voice, a young boy, cry out, "Help!"

"It's getting closer!" another voice, a girl, added.

Ruby immediately dashed up the stairs in a flash of red and found several of the doors in the hallway ablaze. With aura surging through her legs giving off a small red glow, she kicked down the nearest door on her right. Nothing. She did the same to the second one. Still nothing. She came to the last door on the right side of the hallway and kicked it down. As the aura disappeared, she ran forth to the terrified children, took their hands and activated her semblance again. As she exited the house in a flash of a red dot and two smaller black dots, she set the children down a few feet from the fire.

The boy smiled cheerfully. "Thank you for saving us!"

The girl smiled in agreement before she realized, "Oh no... Mom! Dad! They're still in here!"

"Don't worry." Ruby said to the children before turning away. "I'll save them."

She ran off into the building. As the fires raged on, team JNPR was shown running towards the scene. They arrived as Ruby came out of the building, arms linked with a black haired woman and man. As the parents ran to their kids, the team saw two Nevermore circling the building like vultures as Beowolves and Ursa gradually came in from multiple directions.

"Oh crap!" Nora yelled while panting. "This is really bad!"

The parents held their terrified children in their arms, watching as Ruby ran off into the second building as another building caught on fire. "This is extremely bad." Ren corrected, before firing at an incoming Beowolf that was then destroyed by Nora's hammer bonking it on the head. "Last I looked, none of us have water dust, Vale's fire department has been diminished and unless mother nature gives us a miracle, there's no easy way of stopping these flames from spreading."

Ruby returned, carrying a young man in her arms. Pyrrha, who no longer wore her cloak, turned to her partner and asked, "What do we do, Jaune?"

He looked at Ruby, setting the young man down and running off to save more civilians. "Ruby's already saving people. Since she's the fastest, she'll able to save the most civilians. Just let her do her thing. Ren, get these civilians to safety. Cloak their negative emotions with your semblance and help them to find a professional hunter. Nora, fight off the Grimm. If you can, see if you can't get them away from the fire. Pyrrha, you and I have to find a way to extinguish those flames."

Ren gestured for the young man to come with him, went up to the family and held the woman by the arm, letting herself and her family be covered in grey energy. The grey cloak was extended to the young man as well. Surrounded in a calming embrace, Ren swiftly walked away from the scene with the civilians following his lead.

Meanwhile, Nora charged towards the Grimm, barely avoiding the first Nevermore's talons. The talons scraped the edge of a building and nearly got her, but she ducked her head down, swinging her hammer around her in a full circle, her hands and fingers working in sync to spin Magnhild rapidly to weaken the Grimm coming towards her. Jumping on the heads of the Grimm creatures while charging up pink lightning around her, she made her way up to the first Nevermore, destroying it as she brought her hammer down on it.

Pyrrha noted a fifth building catching on fire as well as a sixth. "That fire is spreading really fast. We have to stop it before the entire city burns. But how?"

Breathing to try and stop her panic, she looked around. There were no fire hydrants. "Look, over there!" Jaune cried out, pointing in the direction of a small water tower on top of an apartment building.

Jumping forward, the Arkos duo went to the tower, which was about a hundred feet away. The gladiator girl didn't see any other metal pieces and trying to create a pathway for the water would take too long. She'd have to move the tower with her semblance. Pyrrha breathed in to steady her focus and began moving the small water tower closer to the fire. "I sure hope this works."

"So do I."

Using her semblance to set the water tank down, she was about to lift the top off it when a voice yelled, "Hold it right there!"

The two turned to see who was trying to stop them. The person was a man with unkempt blondish white hair and sunken light brown eyes. His face had a white poorly groomed mustache on it and it looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks, maybe even months. Standing at 6'2 in a muscular build, he wore a yellow suit with a brown coat and a dandelion colored tie with faint brown lines on it. He wore brown military combat boots with black laces and held a revolver type gun in his right hand.

"Charles Mustard?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune blinked before looking back at his partner. "You know him?"

"He's a teacher at Beacon Academy. He graduated from there over twenty years ago, possibly the same year as Qrow and his team." Pyrrha began her explanation. "But why would he...?"

"Shut up, you murderess!" he yelled, glaring at her.

"Excuse me?!" Jaune asked, malice slightly seeping into his voice.

"You're supposed to be guarding Beacon! What are you?..." Pyrrha tried to ask.

"Beacon is a lost cause. In the time I've been here guarding the ruins of Beacon, I've had my scroll stolen, hallucinated and been kept in the dark. I'm through trying to help them." The huntsman turned to look at Pyrrha, his glare intensifying as he aimed his gun at her. "And you, you're the one responsible for all this! I knew you were a murderess, hiding from your crimes and everyone who wants to see you behind bars. If I had known that setting the city on fire would have brought you out of hiding sooner, I would have done this a long time ago."

Jaune widened his eyes in shock as Pyrrha tried to say, "But I wasn't...!"

Charles shot his revolver at her, the attack foiled by Pyrrha summoning Akouo in the nick of time for the bullets to hit the shield and explode in bursts of fire dust. Her eyebrows rose in fear as she heard the sounds of wooden boards and stone collapsing. She looked at the scene below- seven different buildings were ablaze and the first one had burned to the ground, completely destroyed. Her blood turned cold as the fires behind her got hotter and spread farther.

The Nikos warrior found herself lost in thought. _He's lost his mind..._

"Pyrrha, extinguish those flames!" Jaune ordered. "I'll handle this guy!"

Regaining her senses, she put her shield on her back and ran off to where water tank was.

As the fight between Jaune and Charles began, the former charged forward with his shield up and his sword ready to swing down on him, only for Charles to move back as Jaune swung his sword downward as the latter evaded the attack. He swung to his left, then to the right and rolling out of the way as Charles fired a warning shot. The huntsman grabbed Jaune by the collar and threw him to the ground, his sword and shield falling out of his hands, landing on the rooftop as he bounced up for a bit before sliding back to the rim. "Out of my way, boy. You're obstructing justice!"

Jaune glared at him as he sat up. "Justice? Pyrrha was framed!" He rose from the concrete ground and retrieved his weapon. "What don't you get about that?!" In anger, he swung his sword at his head, only to miss and slash his coat right off him.

Charles raised an eyebrow at the former huntsman trainee. "Framed? There's no way she could have been framed! This isn't a movie set, boy! It's reality! The truth is that she tore Penny Polendina to pieces! For that, she must and will be punished!" He kicked Jaune in the gut, forcing him to bend over in pain. "I do not wish to kill you boy, for you have no part in her crime, but if you obstruct me from giving this killer the punishment she rightfully deserves, then I will have no choice but to eliminate you as well."

Jaune stood up straight, venom seeping into his voice. "Leave her alone. She's done nothing wrong!"

The huntsman frowned at his response. "Okay. I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this, but you leave me no choice."

The knight found himself cartwheeling backwards to avoid Charles's gunfire as fire dust bullets blazed past him. Rolling to avoid the bullets aimed at his head, Jaune dodged them all before Charles noticed he was out of ammo. He quickly reloaded the gun with more bullets but before he could do anything else, Jaune swung his sword in a downward diagonal strike, forcing the huntsman to tumble over onto the ground to avoid decapitation. Once on the ground, he put one leg in front of Jaune's left knee and the other behind him, then twisted his legs, bringing Jaune to the ground. The knight growled as he got on his knees and tried to bring down his sword upon the huntsman, but he grabbed Jaune's wrist and twisted it in pain, causing him to scream and forcing him to drop his sword.

Charles grabbed him, dragged him up and threw him across the rooftops. As Jaune laid there holding his hand to his head in pain, the rogue huntsman focused concentration on his target. At four seconds, the knight got up and charged towards him, and after another three seconds, Charles's eyes flashed gold. The huntsman smirked as he ducked to avoid Jaune's sword. "My, my. You've been a bad, bad, boy, Jaune Arc."

The blond knight was startled, but quickly regained his focus. "What are you talking about?!"

Charles continued dodging his sword swings. "You're hiding a lot of secrets. "

Jaune stammered. "Y... you're bluffing!"

The rogue huntsman smirked. "Really? Let's see..." He held up seven fingers. "You have seven sisters. They are, in chronological order- Rouge, Tangerine, Acacia, Emerald, Azura, Indigo, and Amethyst." He loaded more ammunition into his gun. "You are in between Acacia and Emerald, making you the 4th oldest sibling." He gestured to the sword in his right hand. "The sword you use belongs to your great-grandfather and before Beacon, it was a wall decoration that you stole." Jaune's eyes began to widen in terror. "You forged your transcripts for Beacon since you never went to a primary combat school, and you stole money to pay for your tuition at Beacon." By this point, Jaune's mouth hung open in terror. "You have been bullied and forced into subservience twice, once by Cardin Winchester and again by your own sister Rouge." He dropped his sword and shield in shock, the sound of them hitting the roof echoing for a few seconds. "And if that's not enough, here's one thing that no one else in this world knows; You're truly, madly and deeply in love with Pyrrha Nikos and you've had sex with her three times."

Jaune quivered in fear, his courage failing him when he needed it most. "No... this... this can't be possible."

"I'm afraid it is." He fired more gunshots at him, and he barely dodged them. As Jaune dodged the bullets, he saw Charles throw his sword off the roof.

"Not so tough without your weapon, are you?" Charles taunted, getting up from the ground.

"What do you know about strength?" Jaune retaliated.

As Jaune finished dodging the bullets, Charles picked up his shield and tossed it aside, discarding it along with his sword that he thrown away moments ago. "I must admit, for a student with only a year's worth of combat experience, you're good. But you're not quite good enough."

He fired at Jaune again, only this time, his aim was slightly off and the bullet hit his armor, sending him flying in a fiery explosion as a piece of his armor chipped and broke off. He landed on the rooftop, only twenty feet away from Pyrrha, who was finishing dosing the flames. But he payed no attention to her as his thoughts raced like a train.

 _He knows everything. How... how is this possible?_

Charles jumped from rooftop to rooftop to meet back up with him and resume the fight. Realizing he was out of ammo, he swapped his gun for a dagger. "You're through, Jaune Arc!"

Dagger in his right hand, the rogue huntsman charged towards Jaune... only to be knocked out from behind. As he fell to the ground, Pyrrha's shield levitated with a black outline before going back to its owner, Jaune turning to her as the shield returned to her. She took her shield and manually put it on her back as she set the water tower down with her semblance. As she did this, he noticed that the fires behind her had been extinguished. They had succeeded in their mission.

Jaune smiled at her. "Thanks Pyrrha."

"Are you alright? And where's Crocea Mors?" Jaune pointed down below him where his weapon was. "Oh." Pyrrha used her polarity to put them back into his hands.

"Thanks again." He looked at the unconscious huntsman and he noticed he had a cross drawstring bag on his back. "Let's search his bag. Maybe there's something we can use to bind him before he wakes up."

As Jaune took his bag, he examined it for items and found, among other things, a candlestick, lead pipe, rope, and a wrench. Taking the rope from the bag, he swiftly tied the unconscious rogue huntsman up, binding him tightly with the rope, leaving a small loose end to pull him along.

 _I can't believe he betrayed Beacon. Has he lost his mind or is he truly malevolent?_ Pyrrha thought to herself as her boyfriend finished tying him up.

"Alright, we've got everything." Jaune said. "We better take him to the nearest professional hunter who will know what to do with him."

Suddenly Pyrrha and Jaune's scrolls went off and they both answered them promptly. Ruby was making a group call.

"Are you guys alright?" Ruby asked everyone.

"We're fine. Jaune's with me." Pyrrha answered. "How about you?"

"I've rescued the civilians. My aura's pretty taxed from using my semblance so much, but I managed to save them all. Ugh!" The sound of her falling over was heard. "I'm okay!"

"I'm fine. A brief brush with death perhaps, but otherwise uninjured." Jaune answered.

"Glad to hear you're still alive. Nora, Ren, do you read me?" Ruby asked.

"A bit hurt, but only a few scratches." Nora admitted.

"I'm unharmed. I've successfully gotten the civilians to a refuge. The same warehouse the students were taken to be precise." Ren answered specifically. "Where exactly are you guys?"

"I'm over nearby Dust til Dawn." Ruby answered. "I was knocked away from the inferno by a Grimm. Did you guys stop the fire from burning the city?"

"We did. Or rather, I did." Pyrrha answered. "Could you meet up with us at the fountain? Over nearby Love Square Plaza?"

"Sure thing!"

"See you there!" Nora agreed.

"Got it." Ren responded.

"See you soon." Pyrrha said. Everyone hung up and the call ended. She stood on the rooftop, looking at the night sky, musing to herself.

"Is something wrong?" Jaune asked.

She turned back to him. "Oh, it's nothing. Let's go."

The scene transitioned from Pyrrha and Jaune running, the latter with Charles in his arms, to the heroes meeting up at the fountain nearby where team JNPR's apartment was. Pyrrha and Jaune arrived as Ruby, Ren and Nora stood there waiting for them.

"Oh... What a day..." Nora said.

"You mean night?" Ren asked her.

Ruby was the first to notice the unconscious Charles in Jaune's arms and looked at her friends, horribly confused. "Uh... Who's this?"

"This is Charles Mustard." Jaune answered. "He's the one who set the buildings on fire." Ren raised his eyebrows in shock as Ruby and Nora gasped. "Yep. He endangered others, disregarded their safety, abandoned his duty as a teacher and guard at Beacon, and to top it off, attempted to kill Pyrrha because he believes she meant to kill Penny and start the Battle of Beacon."

Nora glared at the unconscious huntsman with fury. "Can we wake him up so I can break his legs?"

As if on cue, the rogue huntsman began to stir. "I think he's waking up." Ren told her.

"Ugh... Oh..." He stared at Ren, Ruby and Nora as his eyes slowly opened. "Oh crud. More accomplices to the murderess." He looked at himself, noting how his arms were bound. "And I'm tied up. Great."

"You have a right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be against you." Jaune said.

Ruby concluded, "So we have a prisoner on our hands."

"Temporarily. At least until we can him to the authorities. Or a huntsman or huntress that can bring him to the police." He groaned. "Unfortunately, this guy is really heavy." He dropped him on the ground as his arms collapsed from exhaustion. "Gosh, what have you been eating?"

Mr. Mustard looked at the blond former huntsman trainee, horribly offended. Ren took the loose end of the rope from Jaune. "Alright, Mr. Mustard. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Which way is it going to be?"

Charles frowned and stood up. "Well, it's not like I have much choice." He looked at Jaune. "Lead the way."

With their prisoner in tow, the quintet found Glydna Goodwitch, trying to repair a destroyed building, only for it to come apart as her aura flickered with a purple glow. As they saw her, they saw her blond hair was in a loose, messy bun. One of the eyes in her glasses was broken, leaving a hole in it as her real eyes looked sunken and sleepy. At first, she didn't even notice their presence.

"Jaune?" She blinked and saw the others. "What are you doing here?"

"Well we were just passing through..." Ruby began.

"Until we saw that part of the city caught on fire." Pyrrha added.

"Luckily, we saved the day and caught the person responsible." Nora finished.

Ren pulled on the rope, bringing Charles Mustard into her view. "Charles?" Glydna looked surprised upon seeing him, but she blinked and became more awake as her shock quickly turned to anger. "What is the meaning of this?!"

He chuckled. "You're too blind, professor. Don't you see that Pyrrha Nikos is responsible for the Fall of Beacon? For all of this?!"

"Oh no..." She looked down at him solemnly. "He's lost his mind."

"So, do you think you could take him to the nearest prison?" Pyrrha asked.

She looked at the red-haired warrior and her allies in regret. "I'd love to take him off your hands, but unfortunately, I can't."

The five heroes were disappointed at her response. "What? Why not?" Ruby asked sadly.

Glydna sighed and turned away from the group. She slumped her back against the wall, folding her arms while still holding on to her crop. "Ever since the Fall of Beacon, crime has increased rapidly. Despite Roman's downfall or disappearance..."

"He was eaten by a Griffon." Ruby mentioned.

"Really?" The former teacher raised an eyebrow. "Well that would explain a lot." Her expression calmed. "Anyway, despite Roman's downfall, or perhaps because of it, crime has increased dramatically. From what we've been able to gather, a new head of the criminal underworld has emerged in Roman's absence. She is known as of the Queen of Thieves, and her name is Neo Politan."

"Neo Politan?" Nora scratched her head. "Wasn't she on Cinder's team, team CMSN?"

"She was, with the alias of Neopolitan Glace." Pyrrha answered. "She was never seen or heard from again after the first round in the tournament. Is it possible that she still works with her?"

Glydna backed away from the wall and shrugged. "From what we've gathered from one of her underlings, Neo has the semblance of creating illusions. Because of this, no one is sure what she really looks like, which makes hunting for her very difficult. It's also possible that she may have fled the city or is in hiding somewhere while her henchmen do all the work." Glydna explained. "Anyway, back on point, crime started to increase rapidly after the Fall of Beacon. Within two months after Beacon's fall, the entire police force was decimated. Everyone's been captured, killed, horribly injured or ran away scared." Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby were shocked. Ren and Nora however, did not look surprised. They were just depressed. "As a result of the police force being dissolved, all of the jails and prisons have been destroyed and this city has become a near ghost town."

"So you pretty much have no way of taking prisoners?" Ren asked.

Goodwitch nodded grimly, giving the lotus ninja his answer. Jaune looked at his former teacher. "So, what now?"

The huntress sighed. "Well, unfortunately, you only have two real options; kill him, or take him to the nearest prison far from this city."

"I say we kill him." Jaune said.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Pyrrha responded.

His partner glared at her. "How can you say that?"

"Jaune..." Ren began.

"There's no point in dragging him with us. It would be a hindrance to our mission. It would be easier to kill him now." He turned to Pyrrha with a more worried expression. "Heck, he wanted to kill you. How can you still want him alive after that?!"

"But if we just kill him ruthlessly, that'll only reinforce his point." Pyrrha answered. "I want him to believe that I'm not the murderer that he thinks I am."

"But if we don't kill him, won't he just spread his false word about you while he's behind bars? Or worse, what if people actually believe him and he starts a man-hunt? What if a kingdom actually declares you as a wanted fugitive?!"

"Jaune." Ren firmly began, stepping in between them to prevent the minor argument from escalating further. "You are blowing it out of proportion. He seems be legitimately insane and with that in mind, who would believe him?" Ren responded. "Also, he is not an immediate threat and therefore, there's no need to kill him."

Charles smirked. "Can we at least break his legs?" Nora asked.

"No, that would just make transporting him even harder."

She groaned in response. "Aw..."

"Come on, bastard." Jaune angrily said, pulling the rope along. "Let's go."

There were no words said as the heroic quintet left the city with their prisoner. An hour had passed as they went into the night, and the six of them found a camping site in the woods. There was no snow on the ground, but it was still chilly. Alas, it was not enough to keep everyone wide awake.

Nora yawned in a moderately loud tone. "Can we go to sleep now?"

"This should be far enough from the city." Jaune said to his teammates. "Pyrrha, you keep an eye on that prisoner as you watch out for danger and tend to the campfire." She nodded. "Considering that it is now... 1:55am. Oh god... We should get to bed immediately."

Pyrrha quickly set up a pile of wood for a campfire as everyone set up sleeping bags and in Jaune's case, his shared tent with Pyrrha. As Nora immediately crashed in her sleeping bag, the red haired warrior lit a match. As she dropped it into the fire, she had a flashback to Cinder ascending to power, orange energy and glyph symbols surrounding her.

 _Do we really stand a chance against her?_ she silently asked herself.

"Pyrrha? Is something wrong?" Jaune asked.

"It's nothing." Pyrrha answered. "Goodnight everyone."

"Goodnight."

"Sleep well." Ren said.

Ruby said nothing as she curled up under her sleeping bag. And so, everyone, save for Pyrrha and the prisoner, went to bed and were out like lights. The red haired warrior saw Jaune crawl into the tent, Ren and Ruby quickly succumbing to slumber and Nora softly snoring. As the red haired warrior sat there on the log by the fire, she looked at Charles and softly sighed.

 _This is going to be a long night._


	49. What I've Done

As Pyrrha stood guard over the campsite and the rogue huntsman, Jaune laid down alone in their shared tent. Despite this physical exhaustion, sleep didn't come to him as easily as he hoped it would. His mind kept him awake.

 _He knows. He knows all. He knows everything... At least, everything about me. But who's to say that he wouldn't use this ability on the others? And what if he reveals all my secrets to the others? No, he wouldn't... Would he? How can I be sure he won't reveal my secrets? I can't just tell them about his ability, or he might reveal my secrets then and there. I have to prevent that. If the others find out, they'll never want to help us face Cinder. And they'll hate me forever. But if I can't kill him, how am I going to do that? Jaune, slow down. You need sleep. Come on brain, let me sleep..._ _Ugh... Inconsiderate brain._

Eventually, he found sleep. But his dreams were not kind to him. The dream began with him in the backyard of the Arc family home. He looked around and saw six of his sisters standing nearby the glass door.

"Oh hey girls. What's up?" Jaune asked. Amethyst hissed at him and he noticed that they were all glaring at him. "Hey, hey, what's that for?"

Amethyst, Indigo and Azura broke off to the right as Acacia, Tangerine and Rouge broke off to the left, letting a familiar face come forth. Emerald glared at her older brother as she came up to him. "We know what you've done."

Azura looked at him with a fierce glare in her eyes that held back tears. "How could you Jaune?"

Tangerine folded her arms. "I know that forging transcripts for Beacon was wrong, but this?! This has gone too far!"

"What... what's this about?!"

"Don't lie to us, Jaune! You know what you've done!" Acacia yelled.

Rouge looked at her enclosed fist before releasing it and twisting her wrist to let her palm face outward. "Honestly, I'm not surprised."

"I know I've lied before, but you? You're a real sinner!" Indigo added.

"We know you stole the money to get into Beacon!" Acacia exclaimed.

"What?" Jaune felt his blood turn cold. "How... how... how do you know?"

"Let's just say, a little birdie told us." Amethyst answered.

A flash of gold eyes was seen on the screen in front of Jaune as a familiar voice asked, "Do you really believe that you can hide the truth from them forever?"

The golden eyes vanished, along with the Arc family home and all of his sisters, in a blur of color. His sisters faded, disappearing into small wisps of black mist and the Arc family home was replaced by an image of him falling into an abyss. He screamed as he fell before he crashed onto the ground and everything went black.

As his eyes opened up, he found himself in a pit of black and orange volcanic rock with braziers of fire lit around him. His head spun, his muscles ached and he felt himself burning up. The knight soon realized that his arms were tied behind him with snakes. He struggled to get free, but it was no use. His arms were bound too tight by the fanged reptilian creatures. After he stopped struggling, he saw Charles Mustard standing in front him with a smirk.

"You claim that I'm the evil one, but have you looked at yourself?" Charles asked him. "You're a liar, a thief, and you don't deserve to be where you are now. I'm just trying to bring justice by bringing a killer to her end."

Jaune glared at him with tears in his eyes. "Don't you dare touch her! She's completely innocent!"

"Aren't you in a bind?" He growled at the madman. "You're in no position to try and stop me. And even if could, you can't protect her forever." An image of Pyrrha Nikos appeared in a mirage of gold light. "One way or another, your lover will meet her end." The image faded until nothing was left. "You will be powerless to save her. And how can you protect her if you can't even protect yourself?"

The snakes slithered up his arms while still keeping him bound. The knight screamed as one snake bit him in the upper right arm and the other pierced through his armor on the left. Charles laughed at the sound of his screams. "No, no, NO!"

He woke up, gasping for air. He looked to his side and sighed with relief. Pyrrha was not there, which meant that he hadn't woken her up in his awakening from his bad dream. Part of him wished that she was actually there to comfort him, tell him he's not a sinner. So far, today had not been a good day... or night, for that matter.

 _Hopefully, the next day will be better._ Jaune thought to himself.

Alas, it was not a good day for team JNPR and Ruby. After Ren finished his guard shift and woke up his friends, they packed up camp and tried to make their way to the nearest village. Charles Mustard, their prisoner, was being held in Jaune's arms. The day had started out alright, but things went from bad to worse. It had been about two hours since they got up and left their campsite.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Ren asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. The village of Sumire should be... within a few days of here, just past these mountains." He gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh boy, dragging this prisoner through this terrain... This isn't going to be fun." He groaned. "Why can't we just kill the prisoner?!"

"Jaune...?" Pyrrha tried to inquire.

"We're wasting time and valuable resources on getting this guy to prison!"

"Jaune..." The gladiator girl sighed. "I know you're not too happy about carrying this prisoner, and him traveling with us, but you have to bear in mind that if we didn't agree to do this, that he could have escaped with Glydna and the other huntresses and huntsmen being too preoccupied with Vale's chaos to stop him."

"He's a dangerous criminal who set the city of Vale on fire, endangered innocent lives, and tried to kill you and me, Pyrrha! Why did Glydna have to push this burden on us? If it was up to me, he would have already been dead!"

"I can understand where you're coming from, but don't you think that the death penalty is a bit too harsh?" Ren interrogated him. "I mean, he's tied up with no way of escaping. We've confiscated his gear and he is not trying to hurt or kill anyone. Charles is not an immediate threat, therefore there should be no need to execute him. In fact, I've actually been thinking that it might be a wiser option to put him in an asylum."

"But killing him would be faster and a lot easier on us." Jaune reasoned.

"Also the prisoner's too dangerous for a mental hospital." Nora elaborated. "What if he breaks free?"

"Alright let's put it to a vote." He set the prisoner down against a tree. "Who wants to see this prisoner be killed?" Jaune raised his own hand and saw no one else raise theirs. He sighed as he put his hand down. "Who wants to put him in an asylum?" Ren raised his hand and Ruby then raised hers in agreement. "Who wants to put him in prison?" Pyrrha raised her hand, quickly followed by Nora. "Well, I'm obviously outnumbered." He groaned. "Alright, we continue to Sumire. But can someone else carry him? My arms are getting kinda tired."

Nora gave a frown. "I'm on it."

She picked up the prisoner as if he weighed no more than a sack of flour. The group continued their trek as they moved closer to the base of the mountain. With Pyrrha and Jaune in the front, and the other four in the back, they made progress towards the mountain they were about to traverse through.

"We're awfully silent." Ruby noted. "Hardly anyone's spoken in two hours."

"Well between the fact that we have a rogue huntsman as prisoner, and our delayed start due to us oversleeping, we're trying to make up for lost time." Ren elaborated. "And we still haven't figured out whether or not we're taking him to an asylum or throwing him in the slammer."

"I would rather see him dead." Jaune said. "But between an asylum or prison, I'd say the stoney lonesome would be a lot better."

"Do you really want me dead that badly? Do you really think I'm a criminal?" Charles questioned, looking at Jaune. "Or is it because I know everything about you and your past?"

He stopped, his heart beginning to pound in fear. Nora quickly defended him as the leader moved onward. "Jaune has nothing to hide! So shut up or I will drop you and break your legs!"

Charles did not seem intimated by his threat. "Does he? Do you really believe he's completely innocent?"

Nora angrily answered, "Yes!"

"Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but he's not innocent. I know more than you think."

Ren gave him a skeptical look. "And how so?"

"For starters, Jaune Arc cheated and lied his way into Beacon. He forged his transcripts because he never attended primary combat school and stole his great grandfather's sword to become a huntsman."

Nora widened her eyebrows, stopped in her tracks along with everyone and dropped the prisoner in shock. "What?!"

Everyone turned to face the prisoner before Ren looked at his team leader in disbelief. "Jaune?"

Ruby looked at him sadly. "Is this true?"

Jaune looked down, ashamed. "Guys..."

Charles laughed. "That's not the only secret he's been hiding from you. Not only did he forge transcripts, he stole a briefcase of money to pay for his education. He's a liar _and_ a thief."

Gasps were heard all around. "Jaune... How could you?!" Nora asked, outraged.

Ren and Ruby exchanged disappointed looks. "But wait! There's more!" Charles exclaimed.

The valkyrie clinched her fists, trying to hold back her anger. "More?!"

"One more. And oh, are you gonna hate him for this..."

"No, please... don't..." Jaune pleaded.

"What else has Jaune done?" Ruby dreadfully asked. She gasped. "Did he murder someone?"

"Fortunately he has not, unlike his girlfriend." Jaune gaped at his contempt. "It doesn't have anything to do with him, but it does involve the true ability of an enemy."

The Arc warrior gulped. "True ability?" Ren wondered. "Does it have something to do with Mercury?"

"No, but good guess." Charles looked at Jaune. "So, are you going to tell them, or do I have to reveal the truth about Cinder?"

"The truth? What are you talking about?"

"Jaune..." Nora angrily hissed.

"Please... don't make me..." Jaune began.

"Either you tell them... or I will." Charles threatened. Jaune looked extremely guilty. "You failed to confess your sins. The least you could do is fess up the truth. So go on, out with it!"

Jaune sighed, closing his eyes. "You remember what I told you about Cinder taking possession of a sword called the Sword of Fall?" He opened his eyes as they reflected sorrow. "Well... I'm afraid that was a ruse." The other three stood speechless. "The truth, or at least, what we know, is a bit more complicated than that." Mr. Mustard smirked as Jaune sighed once again. "There was a girl, named Amber, who had amazing magical powers. Unfortunately, half her power was stolen. How, I have no idea. The other half was supposed to be given to Pyrrha, but the transfer was not completed before Cinder assassinated Amber. As a result, Cinder is the new Fall Maiden."

Ruby looked at the ground sadly as Ren and Nora gasped, the latter very loudly. She exclaimed, "I can't believe you! You've been lying to us this whole time!"

Her partner in crime gave him an unamused look. "So, we're pretty much going up against a very powerful sorceress?"

"Pretty much." Jaune scratched the back of his neck. "Are you upset?"

Nora exploded in anger, "What kind of question is that?! Of course we're upset! You've lied to us! You kept us in the dark!"

"You don't look so surprised." Ren said to Ruby.

"Well, I had my suspicions about Cinder's power from the beginning."

"What? Then why didn't you say anything earlier?!" Nora asked.

"I wasn't sure." Ruby looked at Pyrrha, who wore her cloak with her hood down. "I've also been wondering why Pyrrha wears that cloak, but... I think I know the answer to that."

"With maniacs like Charles after her, what choice did she have?" Jaune defended.

"Oh, shut it you liar!" Nora demanded.

"Hey, it's not his fault for keeping quiet about Cinder's powers!" The others, especially Nora, looked at Pyrrha completely confused. "It's mine." All eyes were on her. "I was the one scared of saying the truth. Ozpin asked me to be quiet about it, but since Jaune was there, and he saw Cinder's ascension to power, I couldn't lie to him."

"You should have told us!" The orange-haired girl focused her glare on Jaune and pointed her right index finger at him as she angrily approached the team leader. "Also, it doesn't change the fact that you forged transcripts and stole money for Beacon! You could have put all of us in danger!"

"Look, I know, I messed up, but I'm not the same guy as when I entered Beacon."

Nora gave her team leader a skeptical look. "Are you?"

"No, I'm not. I'm being honest!"

"You're a liar and a criminal!"

Ren came up to her and calmly yelled, "Nora, stop it!"

Aggravated, she responded, "What? That's what he is!"

"Look, I know you're mad at him. I'm mad at him too, but we can't let our emotions get in the way of our mission."

Ruby stood there in worry as team JNPR began to fall apart. She went up to them nervously, as Nora retaliated, "Our mission? This is Pyrrha's burden, not ours!"

"Uh guys..." Ruby began.

"I mean, magic?" Nora questioned. "We don't stand a chance against her, so..."

 _Wait, who's keeping an eye on...?_ Ruby began to think.

Ruby realized something in horror as she spoke again, slightly louder. "Guys!"

"... maybe we should just leave!" She folded her arms and turned away from the group. "The three of you can handle Cinder and her cronies by yourselves!" She angrily began to walk away in a huff of anger. "Come on Ren, let's get out of here."

Ren reached his hand out towards her. "Nora, we can't just abandon them!"

"GUYS!" Ruby got their attention. "He's gone!"

"What?" Jaune and the others looked around and saw that the ropes binding the madman were torn and Charles was nowhere to be found. "Aw man, he got away!"

Pyrrha questionably looked at her very angry orange-haired teammate. "Weren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on him?"

"Hold on." Ren ordered. "Something doesn't make sense. Why would he run away if his goal is to kill Pyrrha?"

The valkyrie suggested, "Maybe he's being selfish and only looking after himself like Jaune is."

"Nora, could you please stop?!" Jaune asked, exasperated and frustrated to no end. "We've got a bigger problem on our hands. A criminal who tried to burn down Vale is loose and we have to find him before he hurts someone!"

"Would that even work? If he really is trying to escape, he could be anywhere by..." Pyrrha began.

Suddenly she felt something pierce her skin, and she gasped before falling down.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune quickly caught her, holding up her back as he heard malicious laughter. The rogue huntsman stepped out of the shadows with another gun in his hand. The Arc Knight turned to face him with daggers in his eyes. "What did you do to her?!"

"Sadly the darts won't kill her, but it will make her completely defenseless."

Everyone turned to see that a tranquilizer dart had struck Pyrrha in the shoulder from behind. Jaune removed the empty dart and gently set her down as he felt his blood begin boiling in anger. "But how is it possible?!" He threw the dart away. "We confiscated everything he had!"

Charles spun his gun around, smirking. "You didn't look hard enough after you and Pyrrha defeated me." He stopped and pointed the gun to the group. "Rookie mistake."

"But... where?" Ruby's silver eyes blinked in realization. "You kept it in hidden in your boots!"

He gave an even bigger grin. "There you go. Alas, little girl, you figured it out too late." He fired his darts at the group. Ruby spun her scythe to form a fast-spinning shield, Jaune quickly shielded himself, Ren used an aura shield and Nora quickly backflipped and dodged the darts as they were fired. "Surrender, little villains!"

"Well crud!" Jaune exclaimed. "This is the opposite of good!"

Ruby spoke to her teammates, "At least he's out of darts."

"Oh, there's plenty more where that came from!" Charles corrected.

"Huh?!"

He fired off more darts, only for them to all miss as Ruby jumped up high into the air, Ren and Nora ran off to the side, and Jaune ducked and shielded himself to avoid them.

"Curses!" the huntsman grumbled under his breath. As Ren came for him, the huntsman kicked him down with his left leg as he bent down and retrieved two darts and reloaded them into his dart gun and kicked Jaune in the gut as he came towards him. Charles grabbed more darts as Ren came back and tried to stab the lotus warrior in the arm with one, only for him to form a small aura shield, breaking the dart on impact. Realizing that he couldn't inject it manually into him, he looked away from the ninja and tried to find a new target.

First, Mr. Mustard looked to Jaune. _Not him, I want to torture him before I end him._ He kicked him down, preventing his sword from striking his chest as he looked towards Ruby as she got out Crescent Rose and began to fire gunshots at him, only for him to dodge them. _Not her. She's super fast and wouldn't be an easy target._ He then turned to Nora, who furiously charged towards him with pink electricity around her. _Perfect._

Jaune ordered, "Quickly, all of you, go for him at once!"

Charles responded, "That would never work." Ruby and Ren charged towards him. "Jaune's trying to trick you." He easily dodged Ruby's scythe and Ren's incoming punch by grabbing his wrist and tossing him aside. "If he's such a bad fighter, he has to be a terrible leader as well. Heck, if it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be in this situation right now."

Nora stopped in her tracks and turned to Jaune, who was silently shaking in fear as she gave him the most hateful glare she had ever given him. "I can't believe you Jaune! Lying to us, deceiving us! This is all your fault! If it wasn't for you, we would be..."

With one of the darts in his hand, Charles stabbed Nora in the upper part of her right arm with the other dart mid-rant, knocking her out.

Ren looked horrified as she fell to the ground. "Nora!"

Breathing in quickly to try and not succumb to the boiling anger within, Ren glared at Charles and fired at him with Stormflower. The blue energy gunfire was dodged by the rogue huntsman with little effort. Unfortunately, he was not able to dodge the gunfire from Crescent Rose and was knocked into a tree. Of course, with his aura protecting him, he was not down for the count.

"How did you guys defeat him?" Ruby asked Jaune as she moved frantically to evade the gunfire of tranquilizer darts.

"He got lucky." Charles answered, picking up more darts and reloading some of them into his gun. "He had Pyrrha to help him." He turned to Jaune. "But this where your luck runs out."

"Surrender Mr. Mustard." Ren commanded. "You are outnumbered. You will not win this duel."

"You may have me outnumbered, but do you have me outmatched?"

Charles proceeded to fight Ruby in hand-to-hand combat, dealing a series of punches to chest. She formed her arms in the shape of an X to try and block them.

As this happened, Jaune said to Ren, "I hate to admit it, but he may be right. Do we really have a chance against him? And if we can't stop him, how will we stop Cinder and her allies?"

"If you and Pyrrha beat him the first time, I think the three of us can take him down." Ren optimistically stated to boost morale. Ruby was heard gasping. She was manually hit with a tranquilizer dart in the right shoulder, and she too, fell unconscious. At this point, Ren and Jaune were left to face the rogue huntsman. "Or maybe just us two..."

Jaune charged towards Charles and swung his sword down on him, only for it to be countered by his gun. He tried to break the gun into pieces with his sword, only to be punched in the face and thrown back-first into a tree. "We're not out of the woods yet."

Charles smirked and began fire once more.

"Aw crud." Jaune dodged the tranquilizer darts again. "How many of those darts does he have?!"

"And importantly, how does he know everything about Jaune?" Ren asked as he jumped into the air to evade the darts.

"Glad you asked." He dodged their gunfire. "My semblance, Insight, allows me learn everything about a person within a matter of seconds."

"So that's what the golden eye glow was..." Jaune answered back in response.

"You actually noticed?" Mr. Mustard asked him. "I didn't think you were smart enough to notice." Jaune growled.

Ren put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't let him get to you."

Jaune retaliated at the huntsman, "You think you'll win just because you're a professional huntsman. May I remind you that I have beaten a professional before?"

"You only won that duel because of luck. Luck won't save you a second time! You fail to see how outmatched you are, little boy!" Charles reached for something in his right boot. He pulled out a dagger that with the touch of a small green button on the side, turned into a sword with two thin red lines, filling it with fire dust. "I'm afraid that playtime's over!"

"He's been toying with us?!"

"Yes. Yes, I have." He smirked maliciously. "So tell me- how does it feel, knowing that soon your girlfriend will be murdered?"

Jaune looked at his unconscious girlfriend and then looked at Ruby and Nora. If he and Ren failed to stop Charles, they could all be killed, simply for being friends with the accused. His thoughts raced. _This is bad. Everyone but me and Ren is down. I still don't have complete control over my semblance..._

"Surrender now, and perhaps I'll spare you two and the other two ladies." Charles offered.

 _I can't count on luck to help like it did with my duel against Rouge and Pyrrha knocking him over the head with a shield. I need a plan. But what?_

"So what will it be?"

"We'll never surrender, you tasteless condiment!"

He growled in response to Jaune's insult. With his fire dust sword in hand, he swung at them four times, releasing fiery waves in their direction. Jaune was hit in the head by the third wave and knocked to the ground. Ren was hit with several waves of fire dust and as he was thrown back-first into a tree, the same one Jaune was thrown into earlier, his aura began to flicker. His head began to spin as Charles stood with his sword held by both hands.

"Rouge had several daggers of dust, yet I only have the one sword." Mr. Mustard began taunting. "You are losing even harder now than you were back then. Tell me, Jaune Cornelius Arc, do you deserve to be where you are now?"

Jaune didn't answer as he felt himself succumbing to fear and despair. _What do I do when he knows every fault? Every mistake I've ever made? Every sin I've committed?_

"Your time is over!" Charles ran towards him, his sword ready to kill him.

As a tear escaped his eyes, the images of Rouge and Charles came to his mind. _Are they right?_

Ren called out his name in desperation. "Jaune!"

He feared it was all but too late. Charles charged forth and swung his sword at his best friend as the scene cut to black.


	50. The Dark of You

Author's Notes;

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* * *

In the city of Mistral, a middle-aged man stood at the top of the mountain, overlooking the city below in the afternoon sun. This man had a mane of tan/gray hair and a beard. He had a tanned complexion with brown eyebrows and dark brown eyes. He wore a brown great coat with a matching mantle, which had cross emblems on each side. He also wore a white dress shirt under his coat, a western necktie and carried a pocket watch. On his feet, he also wore dark brown slacks and dress shoes. Unbeknownst to many, he was a lion faunus, possessing a tufted grey lion's tail hidden by his coat. The faunus sighed deeply as he went back inside. He sat down at his desk in his office, looking at an empty portfolio. He sighed again as the memory of her last appearance haunted him...

A few months ago, shortly after the Fall of Beacon, Lionheart was in his office, watching the reruns of what was shown of the fall of Beacon Academy on his scroll. He paused the footage and pocketed his scroll before he took the portfolio, filled with a stack of papers bound together with a paper clip. He turned his back and looked at the night sky through his window. His troubled look was shown as the camera reflected his face to the viewer.

"Leonardo." a voice behind him spoke.

"Ahh!" He turned to see who was there- Salem herself. "Oh, y...y.. your grace!" He swiftly bowed down to her. "You startled me!"

"Apologies, Leonardo. That was not my intention." He stood up and she asked him, "Did you finish the files?"

"Yes, your excellency. It took me several long nights of going through databases, and doing a lot of research, but... it has been completed. A list of every professional huntsman and huntress in Mistral and their location. They are sorted in alphabetical order by last name. And this includes Haven Academy staff, members of which are denoted by a star next to their name."

Salem looked over the files. "And you're sure that this is every huntsman and huntress in the kingdom?"

"Yes, I am 100 percent certain that every huntsman and huntress in Mistral, save for myself, as of September 1st of 79 AGW, this current year, has been accounted for."

"Excellent. I will expect an update within a year's time. You have done well, Leonardo."

She disappeared, fading into the shadows. As Lionheart came back to the present, he sighed again.

"How much longer can I keep up this facade?" he asked the empty air. "He will find out... sooner or later..."

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Anima, a raven-haired woman shifted from her bird form to her human form. Raven went back into her tent, where her right hand woman Vernal was waiting for her.

"You've been out for a quite a while." Vernal responded. "Did you run into trouble?"

The leader of the bandit tribe sighed. "Vernal... Excuse me..." She paused and breathed to herself. "Malinda Warin. Do you remember what today is?"

'Vernal' hesitated. "Did you..."

"I did. I'm aware. I've created this lie for so long, that... sometimes I forget the truth."

Malinda looked at Raven sadly. "Has it been ten years already?"

She returned the forlorn look. "I'm afraid so... "

 _January 1st, 70 AGW... One of the worst days of my life._ Raven thought to herself.

Over ten years ago, a young girl, fourteen years old, stumbled onto the camp. Her ginger hair was in the form of a sloppy, messy bun. Her lightly tanned skin had been scratched, bruised and she was bleeding out. Her skirt had been torn, leaving only a few "petals" left around her, and her shirt had been torn, exposing her midriff. Her sandals were missing, and both her cherry red manicure and hot pink pedicure were chipping away. Her flower crown and charm bracelet were also gone.

The poor girl shook before falling over in exhaustion. Two tribe members pointed their spears at her and approached her. "Halt. She's injured. Leave her to me." Raven commanded her followers.

The Branwen Tribe members left Raven as the tribe leader carried the girl to a medic tent to be treated. She stood by as the medics wrapped her arms and legs in bandages. A tanned skinned woman in her early adult years entered the tent. Her brown hair was in a long ponytail and she had icy blue eyes. She wore black pants, a white shirt with sleeves to her elbows, a collar that spiked up behind her neck and black fingerless gloves. This was Malinda Warin.

Malinda came up to Raven. "Is there a reason you're sparing this intruder?"

"Now, now, Warin. Don't be so rash. She may possibly be useful to us. After all, you and your sister were once orphans, taken in by the tribe. Why would we not extend that choice to her?"

"Fair point, my lady."

The red-haired girl began to wake up. "Ugh... My head." She looked around. "Where am I? Who are you?"

"No need to be scared, young girl. You are in a safe place." Raven answered her. "I brought you here so that the medics could treat you of your injuries. Judging by what happened, you don't have your aura unlocked do you?"

She scratched her head. "Um... What's an aura?"

Raven sighed. "Case in point. Do you think you can still stand?"

"I think so. Why?"

"I'd like to speak you in my tent, away from prying eyes and ears."

"I would, but technically, I probably shouldn't be speaking to strangers."

"Apologies for not introducing myself. I am Raven Branwen, leader of this bandit tribe." She gestured to her trusted ally and friend. "And this is my right-hand woman, Malinda Warin."

"Oh, okay." She blinked and asked, "Wait," She raised an eyebrow. "did you say bandits?"

The scene transitioned to Raven, Malinda and the girl in Raven's tent. "So who are you?" Raven inquired the girl.

"Rosa. Rosa Vernal."

Raven raised an eyebrow at the young lady. "Wait a minute. That surname sounds familiar. Vernal..." She looked at her in surprise. "Aren't you next in line to be the spring maiden?"

"I'm... I'm supposed to be." Rosa answered. "Actually, I think I am the new spring maiden."

"So what happened?"

"My mother, and my predecessor, left home one day and never returned. She had been missing for several days, and then, the next thing I know, I wake up in the middle of the night, floating and.. and..."

"You inherited the power?" Rosa nodded meekly. "I see. And without any guidance, you were horribly scared, and you ran away from home."

"I'm still scared." She folded her arms with a forlorn expression on her face. "I have no home, and my mother never told me how to use the maiden powers. How will I master them without guidance?"

The tribe leader mused to herself silently for a moment before answering with, "I suppose that I could help train you."

"Really?" Her face lit up with a big smile. "Thank you!"

"It's no trouble." Raven turned to her friend. "Malinda, fetch some new clothes for our newest member of the Branwen Tribe." Malinda nodded and went off to fulfill Raven's order. "I'll help you master the maiden powers, but you have to do as I say, alright?"

Rosa nodded. "Alright."

And so, Rosa Vernal had become a part of the Branwen Tribe. Her ginger hair was now worn loose with her bangs tucked behind her ears. She had also been given a new outfit to replace her tattered clothes. She wore black capri jeans paired a with red shirt that had loose sleeves. Over her shirt, she wore a black vest that was zipped up to her neck. She wore red fingerless gloves that showed her chipping manicure. Her sandals yet been replaced by black combat boots. Her missing flower crown had been replaced with a pink bandana.

A montage began with Rosa meditating in a cave along with Raven. A pink glow appeared around her eyes as she did this. She had unlocked her aura, then the scene transitioned to Rosa trying to control a fireball, only for it to catch the wooden gate ablaze. Rosa looked worried and hung her head in shame as Raven exhaled in deep exasperation. The scene switched to Rosa was trying to use ice as it was snowing, her manicure gone by this point. She attempted to use the ice and snow in a display of power, only to freeze the entire camp in a blizzard. Then it showed Rosa floating in the air, lightning surrounding her, her eyes glowing pink with the pink maiden glow around them.

"Rosa! Focus!" Raven ordered from the ground. "You mustn't let your emotions get the better of you!"

Rosa lifted her arms up and bolts of lightning shot up from her arms, striking the ground. Somewhere in the distance, a loud scream was heard. Raven turned into a bird and looked at what happened below her. In the clearing below, a girl had been struck by lightning. The girl wore a white shirt with a pink heart design on the chest. Over the shirt, she wore a black hooded jacket, faded pink pants and matching shoes with black tape bound around them.

Her friend, a black haired boy about her age, knelt by her side and screamed her name in fear and sadness. "Nora!"

Wrongly believing her to be dead, the raven left the scene and flew into the storm. She flew up to Rosa, struggling against the wind surrounding her, and pecked at her neck.

"Ow. What the?" Losing control of her powers, she began to fall. "Ahh!" Raven landed on the ground and shifted to human form, catching the spring maiden in her arms. "Oh no... I missed up again, didn't I?"

Raven sighed heavily.

The scene transitioned to Raven and Malinda in the former's tent.

"This isn't working." Malinda stated. "She keeps running off whenever something bad happens. It's like she's not even trying to master her powers."

"Not only that, she's been causing destruction and death in her wake. And this time, it was someone outside the tribe. Whoever that poor girl I saw was, she probably died as a result of this. We can't let this go on. We have to do something."

The tribe member sighed and groaned loudly. "She's been here for two months and she's destroyed the camp three times. Why don't we just kill her?"

"It wouldn't be that easy, Malinda. Maiden powers are passed on from one young woman to another. We would need a new woman who's willing to take on the burden that comes with mastering the powers." Raven slowly turned to Malinda. "Would you be willing to take on the mantle of Spring Maiden and all of its responsibilities?"

Malinda nodded in the affirmative. "I am willing. So what's the plan?"

"Alright... From what I recall, when a maiden dies, it goes to the last person she saw. If the last person was a man or an older woman, it then goes to a random young woman. The two of us will take her to the nearby cave, about three kilometers from the camp, under the ruse that we will do special training there. You will stand in front of her and I will stand behind her. When the time is right, you say the phrase, "Let's begin blooming." and I will kill her from behind with my sword. You will inherit the powers of the Spring maiden thereafter."

"Got it. Let's hope that nothing goes wrong during this."

She knocked on the bark of a nearby tree and prayed for the best. The following night, Raven, Malinda and Rosa were outside the camp, the two walking into the forest.

"Where are we going?" Rosa asked.

"We're going to a cave to continue your training." Raven answered. "We don't want you to accidentally destroy anything like last time."

"Okay, I guess that's fair." Rosa agreed.

The trio went to the cave. "Alright, it seems to be deserted." Raven stated.

Rosa inquired, "So where do we begin?"

"We will begin with some meditation." Malinda got onto the ground with her legs crossed, her arms out and circles formed with her thumb and index finger in both hands. "Get into lotus position." Rosa followed her lead. Malinda closed her eyes. "Let's begin blooming, little flower."

"Raven? Are you...?"

Warin smirked as Raven stabbed Rosa in the back, piercing through her lung. Rosa's eyes opened in shock before they shut closed permanently. The tribe leader withdrew her weapon, causing Rosa's corpse to fall to the ground. Malinda's expression changed to a neutral expression and she shifted to being on her knees. "So far, it seems to be working."

The leader of the tribe noticed something as the dead spring maiden fell down. "Huh?" Green energy, symbolizing spring, came rushing out of Rosa's body, but it didn't go forward. It went behind her and soon entered Raven, causing her to tense up in fear. "No..." Raven began to levitate as green energy swarmed her and a red fiery glow around her eyes formed. Malinda gasped, frozen in awe and terror as her mistress looked at her hands, presumably trying to send the power she was received away from her, only to attack with pure green energy against the wall of the cave, which reflected off the surface and created a brief light inside the cave. Raven felt no difference as the energy finished seeping through her system, disappearing as she landed back on the ground.

Malinda ran up to her. "Raven?! Are you alright?"

She shook uncontrollably. "This was not supposed to happen. The powers were supposed to go to you! Why is this happening?!"

Her right hand woman gripped her shoulders. "Calm down! There has to be some reason it didn't work..."

"Maybe it goes to the second to last person seen?"

"But if that was true then..." Raven stopped and backed away. "Wait a second. It's not the last woman she sees. It's the last woman in her thoughts! She saw you, but she knew I was behind her. She knew... that... I killed her."

 _What have I done?_ Raven mused to herself. _This is extremely bad._

Malinda looked at her in concern. "What now?"

Raven quickly took a breath through her nostrils and exhaled two seconds later. "I... I don't know." She mused to herself, _Thank goodness that everyone else is asleep at this hour. And that we're far enough from camp._ She continued aloud, "It seems these powers can't be gotten rid of. I can't just tell the tribe about my powers. Otherwise, people outside the tribe will find out, and once they do, they'll come for me."

"Do you think that if you dedicated yourself to it, that you could master these powers?"

"I could." She sharply exhaled. "I survived Beacon Academy. Surely I should be able to do this. But I will need time. And I will need someone to cover for me in case Ozpin or anyone else comes looking after the Spring Maiden. But who can I trust to fill such a position?"

With determination, Malinda answered. "I'll do it."

Raven looked at her with forlorn sorrow. "Are you sure you want to do this? You'll be living a lie for the rest of your days."

She nodded in understanding. "I do. I was willing to be the maiden. How hard can playing the role of a decoy be?"

"Then from this day forward; you can take the role of Rosa's long-lost half sister; Vernal." The woman bowed her head in acknowledgment of her new identity. From that day, Malinda Warin was no more. She was only Vernal. "I can not thank you enough for doing this."

Vernal nodded grimly. "I can only hope that as we move forward, no one shall discover what, or rather, who, you have become. Now for the other question; what are we going to do with her body?"

"I need you to take her corpse and burn it. We'll tell the tribe that a Grimm got her and that we couldn't save her. While you do that, I'll get started on figuring out how to use these maiden powers."

As Vernal dragged away Rosa's body to be cremated, Raven sat down in lotus position and began to meditate with green energy slowly surrounding her.

In the present day, Vernal looked at her mistress. "So far no one's discovered the truth. Everyone believes that I've come from a long line of warriors with magic."

Raven poured tea for herself and her subordinate. "I still can't believe that your sister hasn't revealed the truth to everyone."

As Raven began to drink, Vernal responded, "Well, you're the leader. No one would dare defy you."

"That is true, but..." She sighed, putting the cup down. "Can I confide in you?"

Vernal nodded. "Of course. You can tell me anything."

"I don't know why, but I have a feeling that someday, somehow, everything's all going to come back to me."

Malinda set the teacup down with sad look after drinking. "You think that'll happen?"

Raven's eyes glowed with a red fiery glow around them. "I do."

 _But who or what will unravel the web of lies?_

* * *

Back in the forests of Vale, Jaune and Ren were fighting rogue huntsman. But with Pyrrha, Nora and Ruby unconscious, not to mention Ren's aura beginning to run out, things had been taking a turn for the worse.

"Jaune!"

Upon hearing Ren's call, he raised his shield in time to block the sword. Charles tried bring it down on Jaune by forcing him to crack under the pressure his sword against his shield, but Jaune firmly stood his ground and refused to give in. Pushing his arm upward, he pushed back Charles's sword and knocked back Mr. Mustard himself a few steps. "I will never surrender to the likes of you."

"If that's how it must be... then I have no choice but to destroy all of you!"

Charles continuously fired out fiery dust waves from his sword. Ren stated, " _Please_ tell me you have a plan to stop this madman and save our skins."

Jaune desperately tried to think of a plan and quickly. _What would Tangerine do? What would Tangerine do?_

The Arc Knight remembered something she said during one his many lessons. The two were clashing swords against each other. _"Oftentimes strength is not enough to defeat your opponent. You may have to outwit them, beat them at their own game. The key is to unbalance your opponent."_

As he came back to reality, he blinked in realization. "I do. But I need you to go along with it." He looked towards Ren sincerely. "Do you trust me?"

Ren nodded in the affirmative. "I trust you."

"Good. Follow my lead." Jaune lowered his sword and faced Charles. "You're right, Charles. I don't deserve to be where am I now. But if you think that me and Pyrrha are the only sinners, then you're wrong. Ren is also a bad man."

Ren raised an eyebrow in confusion. Jaune mouthed an inaudible, _Go with it._

"You speak nonsense, Jaune." Ren retaliated calmly.

"Do I Ren? Or have you forgotten what you've done?"

Charles tapped his right index and middle fingers together against his forehead. "I don't recall you previously knowing that."

"That is because you Insighted me the previous night on the rooftop. I spoke with Ren during his guard shift early this morning after you fell asleep and acquired new knowledge. He confided in me his deepest darkest sins."

Mr. Mustard smirked. "Is that so?" Jaune nodded with a smirk on his face. "Well then... What have we here?" Charles focused concentration on the ninja. As Charles focused concentration, Jaune swiftly walked, not run, up to Charles and attempted to kill him from behind by stabbing him, but as he stabbed him, his aura flickered and eventually shattered as Charles's eyes glowed gold for a moment. As the gold flash faded, he turned to Jaune.

"He's still not dead." Ren stated.

"No, but he can't protect himself anymore. Open fire!"

Ren fired away at him as Charles smirked, rolling away, and continuing to evade all his attacks with ease. "Well well." The rogue huntsman began. "Not as bad as Jaune said you were, but so much pain. So much misery. What hurts more, Lie Ren? The fact that the monster who took your parents is still out there? Or that the girl you love likely doesn't return your feelings?"

The ninja ignored his commentary but silently shed a single tear as he fired at the rogue huntsman before charging at him, avoiding Charles's waves of fire dust as he stopped about ten feet before him and threw his weapons. The blades of the pistols didn't get his skin, but it did get the cloth of his long sleeves, pinning him against the tree.

 _I think I understand why Jaune wanted him dead so much..._ Ren thought.

"You annoying pests! You'll never survive this battle!" Mr. Mustard declared.

"Jaune, now!" Ren commanded.

With white aura glowing around his feet, Jaune rushed over to Charles as he got Ren's weapons off of his coat that restrained him to the tree, and attempted to run from the knight. Alas, as he tried to escape, Jaune stabbed him in the right of his chest. He gasped for breath as his lung collapsed and fell over instantly.

"Finally." Jaune's aura around his feet faded. "He's gone..."

Ren picked up his weapons and deactivated them. "You're not going to...?"

"I won't." Jaune answered. "You got any rags to get his blood off my sword?"

Ren handed Jaune an old blue washcloth rag and Jaune began to wipe off the blood from his sword. "Aside from trying to be humane and merciful, there's another reason I was trying to not have him killed- what are you going to do with the body?"

Jaune finished cleaning his sword and put both pieces of Crocea Mors on his back. "I could take it and turn it to ash." As if on cue, it began to rain. "Oh great." Jaune sarcastically commented. "So much for cremating him." He mused to himself briefly. "I know where I can take his body. I've been camping in these woods before, and about three kilometers away, there is a filthy algae infested lake. I figured I'd dump the body there."

"I suppose it's the best choice given our certain circumstances. I'll watch over our friends until they wake up."

"Thanks Ren."

As Jaune dragged away Charles's corpse, the scene transitioned to Jaune nervously standing before his teammates. Ren was standing on both feet over by Nora, who was tired and had her back propped up against a nearby tree. Ruby also had her back against a different tree, but in addition to droopy, sleepy eyes, she had drool pooling from her mouth. Pyrrha on the other hand, stood with her back against another tree, having mostly recovered from the tranquilizer's effect quicker than her fellow ladies.

"Alright, Jaune." Ren began. "We've won the fight. Charles Mustard is no more, you've disposed of his body, and now, to address the secrets divulged." Ren glared at Jaune. "You forged transcripts to get into Beacon Academy and stole money to pay for tuition. Explain yourself."

Nora commanded as if she was somewhat sleepy, "Start talking!"

Jaune sighed. "If I be honest, when I first entered Beacon, it was for selfish reasons. I was thinking about the fame, how I wanted to prove everyone wrong, how I wanted to be a hero no matter the cost. So I cheated, lied and stole. I will admit that I feel guilty about these actions, even if I feel no regret about them, because ultimately, I want to believe that I made the right decision. I'm not the same man when I entered Beacon. I want to believe that I'm better. I've come so far in such little time, learned more knowledge than I ever have in any of my previous years of homeschooling, and stood toe to toe not only against Grimm, but went head to head with a huntress and a rogue huntsman. And even if I'm wrong, I want to believe that my presence changed things for the better. Assuming that nothing else changed, you guys would be on a team of three, and Pyrrha would have perished in the Fall of Beacon. Without that phone call I made to Weiss, Ruby never would have found her and saved her."

"Actually," Ruby wearily began. "I didn't."

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "You didn't?"

"No... When... when everything went white... as I unleashed my believed silver-eyed power at the top of the tower, Pyrrha was still bleeding... I fainted, and fell unconscious for ten days."

"You mention a silver eye power. What is it exactly?" Ren asked.

"That's what I'm trying to find out..."

"But if Ruby fell unconscious, then... who saved Pyrrha?"

For a moment there was silence. Ruby wanted to shrug, but with the paralysis from the dart that hit her, she couldn't move a muscle. "I don't know how I'm alive," Pyrrha began. "but I know that I am grateful to be here."

"I'm glad you're here too." Jaune wrapped his arms around her for a few seconds. Then he turned back to Ren. "Also, the Grimm dragon wouldn't have been petrified, which I assume was the result of Ruby's powers, and both the dragon and Cinder would have caused a lot more injures, death and destruction. The whole city could have been brought to its knees." Jaune added.

"Jaune Arc." Ren turned to the leader of team JNPR, his expression calm yet firm. "I understand you're trying to justify yourself and your actions, but I think that by swiftly learning the ropes, honing your skills, and challenging your older sister Rouge in an act of impulsive anger, you've been trying to avoid answering a very important question. You've been trying to get good and learn how to be a huntsman, but you've been shoving those feelings of guilt and bitterness aside, bottling those emotions up. But now that your secrets have been revealed to me, Nora and Ruby, I'm presuming Pyrrha already knew, you have nothing to hide. Taking everything that's happened into consideration, the good and the bad, answer honestly; Are you worthy of being a huntsman? Or alternatively, do you deserve to be where you are now?" Jaune began thinking about his answer. "Think long and hard before you answer."

Jaune Arc looked at the ground crestfallen. He thought about everything he had ever done, good and bad. As he stood there in silence, Rouge's words rang in his ears.

 _"...you're not a hero and you never will be."_

 _"You're nothing! That's all you are, and all you will ever be!"_

 _"You don't deserve victory! You don't deserve anything!"_

As Jaune came back to reality, he answered, "I... don't. I don't deserve the knowledge that I have. I don't deserve to be standing alongside you. I don't even deserve Pyrrha's love." Pyrrha softly gasped and felt her heart break a little. "But... because I do have all these things, the knowledge, the ability, even Pyrrha's love, I'm continually striving to be better. Even with Beacon's downfall, I've continued to improve and learn how to be a huntsman. I'm no longer fighting solely for myself, but for my friends and loved ones, and for those that can't defend themselves. I'm improving to be the best hero, huntsman and person that I can be."

"That's a very well-spoken answer." Ren began. "You've just taken the first and most difficult step into purgatory."

"Huh?"

"Make no mistake Jaune, while I do trust you, I have not yet forgiven you. Unlike Nora, I am able to not let my emotions get in the way of our objective, and I know that you're a good man and that you will redeem yourself in time. Once you have successfully done this, I would be honored to fight Cinder and her allies alongside you. Until that day, however, you have a long way to go." Jaune groaned. "Also, I don't know about Ruby, but Nora is furious with you lying."

"I am disappointed, but I'm not mad..." Ruby answered. "I just wish you would have told us this earlier."

"You have every right to be angry with me. For lying, for stealing, and for not admitting the truth about Cinder. You're free to go if you wish."

Ruby responded, "I'm not leaving. And I don't think Ren is either."

Ren nodded in affirmation. "My legs are paralyzed." Nora began. "I can't go anywhere, even if I wanted to. Besides, now that we know how dangerous Cinder really is, you guys are gonna need all the help you can get. But do not mistake my willingness as forgiveness. I'm still very angry with you Jaune."

"I know. You're angry with me, and you probably can't trust me either. Which is why I'm officially dubbing Pyrrha as co-leader. If you don't trust me, then you can definitely trust her." Pyrrha blushed at the compliment. "Now then, with Nora and Ruby unable to walk, we can't really get anywhere fast. That is, unless you guys would be willing to carry them."

"I'd be willing to carry Nora." The ninja picked her up as Nora folded her arms, showing her discontent with Jaune. He turned to his red-haired teammate. "Pyrrha, would you be willing to carry our other friend, Ruby?"

"Sure thing." Pyrrha took Ruby into her arms. "Hmm. Lighter than I thought." she said to herself. She looked at Ren and Jaune. "Let's move."

Jaune sulked as they continued forward, with the knight taking the lead and the other four behind them.

 _That was a really difficult battle in more ways than one. But yet, if Charles Mustard lost his mind, are there other fighters and professional hunters that seek to kill Pyrrha too? And how will I know if I'm redeemed?_ He sighed internally. _This is far from over. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning._


	51. Mirror Mirror Part II

Mirror Mirror Part II/When Disapproval's All You're Shown, the Safest Place Becomes Alone

* * *

Weiss Schnee sat upon her bed, looking at the sky through her window. She stood up from the bed, went to her desk, took the book _Snow White and the Huntsman_ and was about to resume reading in her comfy chair when she heard a knock on her door.

"Weiss, your father wishes to speak to you." Klein spoke to her.

"Thank you, Klein."

Klein walked away, leaving the heiress to complete her task. Weiss set the book down and the scene transitioned to Weiss standing outside the door to her father's study. As she stood there, she heard the discussion inside. She slowly and hesitantly put her hand on the doorknob.

"This isn't about the good of my company, General; I'm talking about the good of Atlas, our entire Kingdom!" she heard Jacques exclaim.

"That is a load of garbage and you know it." Ironwood responded.

Weiss silently opened the door and peered in as her father angrily asked, "I beg your pardon?!"

James Ironwood sat in a chair in front of a bookcase. "Jacques, will you please just hear me out?"

Jacques, sitting down in a blue chair across from him, placed a glass down on the table roughly. "You are a trusted friend and ally to this family, James, but what you're suggesting is absurd!" He slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair to further emphasize his point.

The general folded his arms. "You are blowing it out of proportion."

Jacques angrily stood up. "The other council members will never agree to it!"

Ironwood stood up with him as he retaliated, "You've forgotten that I hold _two seats_ on the council."

"Your Dust embargo has already cost me _millions!_ I can promise you, I have not forgotten!"

"So this is about _you_." Ironwood concluded.

Weiss came into the room, and watched the two men awkwardly before the door shut behind her, startled at the sound as James and Jacques turned to look at her. She clasped her hands behind her back.

Ironwood gave her a respectful bow. "Miss Schnee! My apologies. I should have been gone by now."

"It-it's okay." the heiress responded.

The general turned back to her father. "We will resume this conversation at another time."

"Indeed." Jacques agreed. "Klein can show you out."

"No need. I know the way." Weiss stepped aside so that Ironwood could reach the door. The general turned and looked at her father. "Until next time, Jacques." Jacques solemnly nodded back at Ironwood. He turned to Weiss. "And, since I am here..." He retrieved an envelope from his jacket. "I am formally inviting you to Atlas Academy." He handed it to Weiss, who held it in her hands as if was a briefcase of cash. "I know after the Fall of Beacon, it may be a bit unexpected, jarring and difficult to step on the field, but you do not have to make a decision now. You have a few weeks to think about your decision. We would be happy to have you, Miss Schnee."

Ironwood left the office. A pan shot of Weiss and Jacques revealed a portrait of a younger black-haired Jacques hanging on the wall behind his desk. Jacques give his daughter a slight glare. "Did you forget your manners while you were away?"

He turned and walked to his desk a few steps up from the chairs and tables where he and Ironwood were just sitting. Weiss was annoyed at the comment but calmed down with a sigh. "No, Father. I'm sorry."

"Can you believe there are still people in the world that blame Atlas for what happened to Beacon? To Vale?"

"Well, they weren't there. They don't know what really happened."

Weiss began walking across the room to stand before his desk.

"I'm surprised Ironwood wasn't stripped of his rank." Jacques sat down, swinging the seat so that his back was to Weiss. "I suppose the other members of the council trust him, for better or worse."

A moment later, she responded, "I trust him."

Jacques sighed and turned toward his daughter. "Thanks to him, Atlas is forbidden from exporting Dust to other Kingdoms. 'A precautionary measure', as he puts it, 'until we're certain no one is going to declare war'. How anyone could possibly find that to be sound logic is beyond me." Weiss blinked at her father, clearly uncomfortable. "Which is why the Schnee Dust Company will be holding a charity concert in the coming weeks." Weiss looked up at him in surprise. "We need to show the people of Remnant that we are on their side. That we are all victims of the fall of Beacon."

Weiss slowly smiled. "That's... wonderful news."

"Indeed it is. And I think it would make a lot of people happy if you _performed_ at the event."

The heiress raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Many people seem to forget that you were there. My own daughter, a Schnee, on the grounds, defending another Kingdom! We need to remind them! And we need to show them that the Schnee family is just as strong as ever!" he explained to her.

"Are you asking me if I'd like to sing, or telling me?"

Jacques leaned forward and made a tent with the fingers of his hand as he meaningfully gazed at Weiss. "I think it would make a lot of people happy."

Weiss sighed. "I'll start practicing."

"That's... my girl."

Weiss shut the door to her father's office and turned to find the butler, Klein Sieben, waiting for her with a tray with a single mug. "Hot coffee, Miss Schnee? I always find he keeps his study dreadfully cold."

Weiss took the mug off of the tray with a smile. "Thank you, Klein."

"You know what I think?" Klein asked her.

He lifted the tray, covering his face before dropping it dramatically and he leaned forward toward Weiss making a less-than-formal face, his brown eyes having turned red. He spoke in an accent with a gruff voice, "I think it's to balance out all his hot air."

Weiss' eyes widened in delight as she turned and looked over her shoulder at the closed office door. She turned back to the butler with a giggle. "Klein!"

The two giggled together before he faked a sneeze, and his eyes turn blue. He spoke in a high-pitched accent, "Uh, apologies, madam."

Klein pretended to sneeze again. Weiss giggled merrily, hiding her smile behind her hand with the envelope Ironwood gave her. Klein wiggled his mustache and looked up as his eyes turned yellow. "Ah, there's my happy little snowflake."

Weiss breathed a sigh, releasing some weight off her shoulders, and she gave the butler a genuine grin. "Thank you, Klein."

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Patch, Yang sat on her bed, depressed and thought to herself about the people who left her behind. The people she was supposed to count on, but hurt her and left her behind in one way or another.

 _Abandoned by everyone. First my mother, then my partner, and even my sister... How could she?!_

She placed her remaining hand to her head. _This way of thinking is irrational._ the rational part of her brain told her. _You told her that she could do what she wanted._ The blonde girl internally sighed. _I'm losing my mind. Oh, wait. I've already lost it._

The former fighter thought back to events that occurred after the Grimm Breach in Vale. When she saw her mother for the first and so far, only time...

Yang Xiao-Long walked in the courtyard of Beacon Academy in the dead of night towards the mysterious swordswoman, who saved her before from Neo Politan. Upon seeing her, she asked, "Who are you?"

The woman removed her mask, revealing herself to be Raven Branwen, who bore a resemblance to her daughter, Yang. She spoke, "Yang, we have a lot to talk about."

Yang's eyes turned red. "You... you abandoned me. How could you do this?!"

"Calm down. Do you want the entire school to wake up?!" Raven breathed in to calm herself. "Yang... You don't want to live the kind of life that I live. I'm always on the run, always moving from place to place, doing things that your uncle Qrow hated and condemned."

"You could've stayed." Yang interrupted. "Even if you and Taiyang hated each other, you could have stayed to help raise me, even if just meant seeing you on weekends. Also, what you do mean by 'things Qrow hated and condemned?'"

Raven looked at her calmly. "Did anyone ever mention a group known as the Branwen Tribe?" Yang stood silent, her eyes turning back to lilac. "Judging by the silence, I can safely guess that you haven't."

"I haven't. But who are they and what does that have to do with you?"

"Long story short; they're a group of bandits who raised me and Qrow. We left the tribe for a brief time, and Qrow never returned to it after Beacon."

Yang tried to fight the boiling anger. "So you left to be a member of some questionable tribe?!"

"To lead them." Raven claimed with some truth. "I knew where my loyalties lie, and Qrow knew his. I saved you this once, but don't expect it to happen again."

"So why did you save me? How did you even know I was in danger?"

"I don't know how, but my instincts told me that you were in danger, and I had a vision of your downfall. When I got there, you were completely unconscious, proving my point. I know I haven't been there much, but I didn't want to see you meet your end so soon. You have much to learn."

"What do you mean? Why... why did you and Qrow leave the tribe?"

The swordswoman noticed something out of the corner of her eye. "If you want answers, you must find me on your own."

"Mother..." Raven put her mask back on. "Wait!"

Raven ran off into the night, leaving her daughter standing there in a mixture confusion, sorrow and anger.

Unbeknownst to Yang, Raven ran into a forest and turned into a bird. As she flew over Beacon, she left a black feather behind before creating a portal and flying into it over Beacon tower.

As Yang returned to the present, she sighed and threw her head against the pillow.

 _I'm alone. I've always been alone._

* * *

Back in Atlas, the heiress sat at her desk and looked at the envelope that Ironwood had given her. It was a white envelope with a snowflake stamp in the upper right corner. The center of the envelope read;

 _Weiss Schnee_

 _Schnee Family Manor, Atlas City, Atlas, 5323 Blizzard Boulevard_

In the upper left corner of the envelope read these words;

 _James Ironwood_

 _Atlas Academy, Atlas City, Atlas, 6614 Glacier Road_

She opened the envelope and began to read Ironwood's letter.

 _Dear Weiss,  
_

 _I hope that you've been doing well. I know that as a result of the Fall of Beacon, it may not be easy to go back to a huntsman academy. Counseling words are not enough for all the causalities, both civilian and huntsmen and huntress alike, nor can it restore the souls of those that have fallen in the attack on Beacon Academy. The only thing we can do is move forward, which is why I'm formally inviting you to Atlas Academy._

 _Atlas Academy has over 80 teachers, many of which are huntsman and huntresses themselves, as well as 120 classes to prepare you in being a huntress. Not only does Atlas Academy have the highest student survival rate, but the school has a 95% graduation rate._ _Albeit Atlas Academy is said to have the most expensive tuition out of all the huntsman academies, with your upper class standing, finances shouldn't be a problem. And, although it is not necessary, you could always apply for scholarships. I'm sure you'd qualify for some of them._ _Assuming you decided to attend, all of your credits and courses would be transferred so you wouldn't have to repeat any classes that you have already taken._

 _I know that is a lot to think about, but you have over a month to decide. The actual year begins on February 20th, so you have until Feb. 6th at the absolute latest to decide. Assuming that you do decide to attend Atlas, this would give you two weeks to move into the single-room dormitories and register for classes. Since you have already passed the entrance exam and the initiation test at Beacon, you won't have to go through either of them again. While you would start out as a solitary student, you could, if you so desired, join the process of the Team Reformation Queue to form a team with other solitary second year students. I can't guarantee that you'd find new teammates, or that you would like said teammates, but it may be worth a try. Regardless of where you will go or what you will do, I wish the best of luck in your endeavors, now and in the future._

 _Best regards, James Ironwood_

Weiss put down the letter. She wanted to be a huntress, to redeem the Schnee family name, to free herself. But even if she went to Atlas, would she truly be free? The reason she went to Beacon in the first place was to get as far away from her father as possible. She tried to get away from him, but in the end, all of her efforts had been for nothing. The life she fought for still wasn't her's.

 _Can I stop my fall?_ She looked at the walls of her room. _Or have I already fallen?_

* * *

Elsewhere in the Schnee Manor, Whitley stood from the ledge as he saw servants in the dining area, setting the table for dinner. A small silver cart held various dinnerware as his eyes darted to two servants. Estelle Blanche, one of the servants he knew by name, was speaking with one of her coworkers, a younger woman with black hair knotted into a bun and blue eyes in a maid outfit. The young woman hummed to herself as she set the plates on the table.

"You're in a cheery mood today." Estelle said.

"I just learned from Irving that there's going to be a concert at the Grand Chateau Concert Hall." the maid answered.

Estelle raised an eyebrow in confusion. "And you're happy about that... because...?"

"It's the Schnee Charity Concert/Art Auction." She got out some bowls and placed two at the side of each plate as she further elaborated, "Since Mr. Schnee is hosting the event, he'll need servers to set up tables for drinks and/or hor d'ouevres. Or maybe he'll need people to serve the guests. There's also setting the event up including the decor and creating a gallery for all the artwork. I'm hoping that by working at the event and/or helping to set it up, I'll get a pay bonus."

"Oh, that's unlikely. Jacques almost never gives members of the help a raise. Not unless they're really really good."

"And how would you know that?"

"Cause I've been working in this manor for decades, Merla." Estelle answered as she got out the silverware and began to set it up. "I was here when Nickolas Schnee founded the Schnee Dust Company all those years ago. I believe I may be the only one left here who worked for Nick. Everyone else has either died, retired, switched to a different job, or in one case, got a complete full-blown case of amnesia."

Merla got out some tall glasses and set them down before getting a pitcher of water with some ice cubes in it. As she poured the water into the glasses, she asked, "So what was Nick like?"

"Nick was very kind and brave, and he treated all his employees like equals, from his business partners to the help. In fact, he even fell in love with one of the maids, and she returned his feelings." Merla set the water pitcher back on the silver cart. "That maid was Gwendolyn, also known by her nickname of Gwen. After a year of courtship, Gwen and Nick were married and within the following year, they had their daughter, Willow."

"Really?" Merla smiled with wonder. "I had no idea."

"Most of the servants don't." Estelle started folding napkins and placing them on the table. "Klein knows, since I told him, but not too many know of what it was like before Jacques took over the company." In realization, she added, "Oh. Sorry about the history lesson. The point is, you're not likely to get a pay raise. It's not impossible, but it's not very likely either."

Merla sighed. "I guess it can't be helped. I'm a glass half-full girl."

Estelle looked at Merla curiously. "So when is this concert?"

The maid began to push the cart away as she answered, "It's on February 5th. The concert itself starts at nineteen hundred."

Whitley stepped back from the railing and spoke aloud to himself, "February 5th, huh?" He looked the calendar on his scroll to the current day; January 2nd. "Well, that's not much time. But hopefully, I can work with it."


	52. Welcome to the Jungle

Author's Notes:

-To Guests CRWBY is gay and Testingyourbutt; Wow, you guys are too kind, both of you! (blushes and vanishes in a puff of smoke)

-Also, wow, I can't believe this has been going on for a whole year. Happy one-year anniversary, Everlasting Light! I know most of my longer stories last for a year or more, but I never thought that when starting this project that I'd be taking it this far. Then again, who knows how far I'll go?

Now then, let's get back to the story.

* * *

Athena looked at the calendar through her scroll as she stood in her tent. She scrolled upwards to the month of September and clicked on the 7th. That was the day Sanctum Academy had been attacked. She looked at the current day; January 2nd. The winged faunus groaned as Ares entered the tent, not noticing his entrance.

"Is something troubling you, my queen?"

She pocketed her scroll and turned her partner in crime. "You flatter me, Ares. But yes, something is bugging me. Maura hasn't been caught yet. It's been almost four months since the Storming of Sanctum and she's still out there."

"That is true." Ares responded. "But we are both aware that the price on her head is ever-increasing and with it, the number of people searching for her has increased. Her days are numbered."

"It's not fast enough." She sighed. "We need to speed things up."

"You think so? According to recent intel, the price on Maura's head is now 200,000 Lien. That's pretty high, isn't it?"

"It is, but it's not high enough. So far, progress towards my goals has come to near-grinding halt. I know that patience is a virtue, but the fires of ambition are dying down. I can't let them go out completely." She threw a drawstring bag over her back, tightening the strings so that they wouldn't be caught in her wings mid-flight. "Which is why I think it's time we pay Tawny a visit." The two walked out of the tent, the other four remaining specialists watching. "Ares, get the others to pack up camp and meet me in Argus within four days. I will fly ahead to inform Tawny so we may formulate a plan to destroy the prison and free our allies. I'll see you in four days time."

"Athena, wait!" Ares grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him to steal a kiss from her. As he deepened the kiss, he let her wrist go and snaked his arms around her waist and she threw her arms around his neck in response. She slid her tongue into his mouth and his tongue motioned in response. The others saw the two passionately making out before they broke the kiss. "For luck."

She smiled while playfully rolling her eyes at him. "Thanks Ares."

Athena took to the skies, her wings carrying her through her the clouded moonless night. The scene went back to Ares, who looked at his remaining faunus companions.

The first was Aoi, a faunus with blue scales, had light blue eyes and black hair in a bob cut. She wore a blue mini skirt paired with a dark blue tank top and a black belt. She wore black wedge heeled boots and a sapphire bracelet.

The second one was a fair skinned faunus a long lizard tail, named Cola, who had green eyes to match the scales on his tail and dark brown hair. He wore black cargo pants that were ripped up to the knee on the right side along with a green t-shirt with a pine green lizard leaping upwards on his chest. He wore a green wristband with the words, _Never cave in. Always resist._ written in white font.

The third one was named Gilford, a murderer and thief with bat fangs. His skin was very pale and he had jet black hair paired with red eyes. He wore a black suit with black dress shoes and socks. He wore a black and red striped necktie and a long black cape behind him. On the ends of his sleeves, he wore red cuff-links.

And finally, there was Marrok with sheep ears. He had pale skin, pale blond hair and blue eyes. He wore jeans and grey hoodie with black and white sneakers. As his hood lied down, revealing his white sheep ears for all to see, Marrok smiled. He seemed nice. But little did the others know what he had done...

"My brothers and sister," Ares addressed them. "Athena has declared that is it time to pack up camp and move to Argus."

"Now?" Aoi asked.

"Yes now."

"Are you sure that..." Gilford tried to ask.

"Get moving!" Ares commanded.

The others frantically started to pack up the camp. Cola looked the ram-horned faunus curiously as he collapsed his tent. "Are you sure that this will work?"

"To be honest, I'm rather worried about this." Ares confessed. "I think she's moving too fast. But, we must press on. After all, once Athena has a plan, no one can stop her." He went into his tent and started to pack his items into a suitcase, thinking about Athena as he spoke to himself, "I hope you know what you're doing..."

* * *

Meanwhile, Sienna Khan continued her search for Maura. Still wearing the black cloak, masquerade mask and bowler hat to disguise herself, she walked through the woods, silently musing to herself.

 _This hasn't been going well at all. Things could be better, but I suppose they could also be worse..._ Sienna sighed aloud, knowing that no one could hear her. _This place has turned into a jungle._ _Three villages I've come across were embroiled in this civil war. Although most of Athena's followers were with her at the Storming of Sanctum and arrested alongside her, it seems that as a result of that attack she's gained even more followers. These followers have clashed with Maura's loyal agents. Not to mention that some of Maura's followers have deserted her in favor of Athena. But I don't get it. Why are they going to her?_

The high leader of the White Fang remembered what happened after she jumped from the ledge...

As the undisguised Sienna fell down to the village with her chain whip in hand, she used it to strangle and slay the nearest Grimm, a Beowolf, before swinging it back to herself as she landed before more Grimm came her way. She jumped up, landed on the back of a Beowolf and released her fire dust blade from the rest of the whip to let it fly towards the head of a nearby Ursa and she punched an incoming Beowolf from behind with her right arm as she heard it growl and come towards her. A fiery explosion was heard and both dead Grimm faded away as she proceeded to jump upward several feet in the air, taking the ice dust blade and sending it flying towards the Beowolf she punched earlier, dealing a fatal blow to its head. She rolled and grabbed her fire and ice dust blades but she failed to see the Ursi coming at her and was knocked down as it swiped its claws at her.

She skid back-first against the ground, growling as the other Grimm came for her. She quickly jumped from the ground and struck a few blows against the creatures of Grimm with her chain whip. The biggest Beowolf tried to bite at her chain whip, but missed it by a few mere inches. The tigress backflipped and as time briefly slowed down, she strangled an Ursa in midair and as she landed on the ground, normal time motion resumed and she beheaded it as she tightened her grip. Shortly thereafter, green laser shots were fired at the remaining two Grimm, knocking the Beowolves down, allowing for Sienna to take the blades she retrieved and directly stab them into the skulls of the Grimm.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked as the last two Grimm faded.

Smiling, she turned to him and answered, "I had them, but thanks for the aid."

"High Leader Khan!" exclaimed a White Fang member with a green ribbon on his wrist. He gave a swift nod in courtesy. "Athena's followers are here! But unfortunately, in the midst of the war, the Grimm have come as well!"

She reattached the blades to her chain whip. "Is there any way to tell who follows who?"

He calmed himself and pointed to the ribbon on his wrist. "Maura's followers are wearing green ribbons on some part of their body. Usually the wrist."

"Good to know." She wrapped the whip around her right wrist. "Who's leading the charge on the loyalist's side?"

"No one that I know of."

"Well then, let's fix that, shall we?"

The high leader and her loyal follower went to the main site of the battle, a part of the village that had not yet been burned by the flames of war. The tigress could see several gunshots being fired on both sides as several White Fang members fought. She saw those with owl feathers on their White Fang masks and those with green ribbons on their wrists. Members on both sides fired guns, held swords and other weapons in their hands and some fought with their bare hands. Some pairs of enemies tried to push the weapon out of their opponent's hands. To the left, some sets of enemies were killed in various ways, including being gruesomely beheaded, stabbed in the chest, and in one case, an arrow to the heart. To the right, she saw White Fang specialists fighting against each other with their weapons, such as whips, swords, bow and arrows and a pair of sais.

"Brothers and Sisters of the White Fang!" Sienna called out. All eyes turned to her as the fighting came to a grinding halt. "I believe we all know that Maura Celandine is true leader of the Mistralian White Fang. She is the one I appointed, and she is the one I trust. To those of you who have chosen to follow Athena Bruna, you need not follow the false preacher's footsteps. She has lied to you and deceived you. Maura never attacked Sanctum Academy. That was the doing of Athena and her army. I currently don't know why she chose to take such extreme measures, but it was unnecessary act of malice and betrayal. If you side with us, you'll be on the right side of history when we bring this civil war to an end."

A woman with dark skin, hair and bear claws glared at Sienna. She wore a black and white dress with black boots and a dark purple belt. Like the other traitors, she wore an owl feather on her White Fang mask. Out of the corner of her eye, Sienna saw her wearing a claw pendant necklace. Sienna silently raised her eyebrows in shock. "We will never surrender." the woman declared. "Maura has been holding us back for far too long. Athena will bring a new age, in such faunus will truly topple the status quo. You and your loyalists won't last forever! The revolutionists will change the world!"

"Uh, what do we do about Sienna Khan's presence?" a revolutionist asked.

"Bring her to Athena." the leader answered. "I'm sure she'd be glad to have her."

Sienna unfurled her whip. "Loyalists, attack!" As the fight resumed, the tigress went straight for the clawed woman. "You don't have to do this, Negra."

Negra smirked. "And why shouldn't I?"

The duel between Negra and Sienna began with the former punching the high leader in the face, followed with a punch to the gut before Sienna used her chain whip to grab the clawed woman's arm and swung her whip to release her and toss her into the building. She got up from the brick wall and quickly got out her weapon, a battle axe with fire dust and threw it at Sienna to distract her as she charged forward and tried to kick her in the gut, only for Sienna to dash back and use her whip to throw her into the wall again.

"You'd be a traitor! You vowed to be loyal to the Fang no matter what! You swore to it!"

The traitor got up and threw knives at her to distract her as she retrieved her axe. As Sienna finished dodging the knives, Negra swung her axe creating fire dust waves for Sienna to dodge.

"I did swear loyalty to the Fang, High Leader." She kicked Sienna in the gut and knocked her down. "But what you fail to see is that Maura is weak. Maura has been leader for close to five years and during that time, we've gotten nowhere." Sienna got up. "The fact that she ran away and hid somewhere proves it."

She to tried swing her axe down on her, only for Sienna to block it with the grip part of her weapon. "She was wrongly accused for a crime your leader had done of her own free will! Tell me this, Negra, if you were wrongly accused, wouldn't you run?"

Negra was shocked. This allowed for Sienna to grab the clawed woman and throw her into the wall, breaking it as she was buried under the rubble. Holding her hand to her head as she got up, Negra began to show signs of fatigue and she widened her eyes in terror as something happened behind Sienna's back. "It's over, Negra."

The clawed woman looked around her. "On the contrary," she said smiling, "I believe that it is only the beginning."

She threw a smoke bomb and disappeared. As Sienna looked around, she realized that the rest of the revolutionists had disappeared as well. Sienna said no words, but instead sighed sadly.

As the tigress returned to the present, she continued to collect her thoughts.

 _Kunchinashi shouldn't be too far from here. Only a day's worth of walking. Assuming I don't encounter any trouble, I should be able to make it there by tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, Maura's messenger was not specific in where exactly she chose to hide herself. Once I get there, how am I going to find her?  
_

As Sienna walked through the forest, she found herself growing more weary by the minute. Eventually, after walking for nearly another hour, she found herself slowing down. She yawned and decided it was time to retire for the night. A few feet later, she stopped and set up a black tent for herself. Leaning on her left side, she closed her eyes, placed her head to her pillow, her left hand under it as she used her other hand to drape an orange blanket over herself.

 _Don't worry, Maura._ _I'll be there soon._

* * *

In the southern edge of Mistral, Ilia had just arrived at the White Fang base. This particular base was where Maura used to be, and where the White Fang was centered before they moved to Menagerie.

Ilia opened the doors to the building and her associate followed her lead. Her cohort, a male Faunus with yellow eyes, brown hair and dark scales on his tanned skin, looked around, his eyebrows raised. "I thought Maura Celandine was supposed to be here."

As the two walked through the deserted hallway, the chameleon faunus quipped, "She is. Maybe she's here somewhere. Check the hallways. I'll look in the throne room."

Her associate nodded his head and followed her command. As Ilia came up to the black and red doors marked green slash marks, she opened the doors and entered the room, only to find it empty and dark. She turned on the lights and looked around, trying to see if anyone or anything that could lead to Maura was still lying around. As she walked on the black carpet up to the throne, she saw a small folded sheet of paper on the seat. She went up to the throne and picked up the paper and unfolded it.

The top of it read,

 _For Sienna Khan's eyes only;_

A few lines down, she read the main message.

 _High Leader- I have to leave this place. The authorities are looking for me. I can't stay here without risking being caught, and possibly executed, for something I didn't do. I have left a clue for you to find me if need be. I can only hope that your eyes will see this._ _You once told me that you were smart and could unscramble words. I have a keyword written out for you. Unscramble it and it is the name of the city where I have gone. Once you arrive, look for a White Fang messenger with green stripes on her mask. She usually hangs around the southern edge of the city and she's the only one that knows my location.  
_

 _Best of luck and regards, Maura_

 _Keyword; Uchinakunshi_

Ilia set the letter down, took a picture of the message with her scroll and pocketed it as the male faunus walked back into the room. "It seems that she has disappeared." he said to Ilia. She refolded the paper and placed it down as if it had never been touched. "Do you think maybe that's why Adam left his hiding place? To look for Maura?"

"I guess. But why? And that still doesn't answer the question at hand- where in the world is he?" Ilia asked in response.

* * *

Unbeknownst to her, Adam and his cronies were in Wind Path, standing outside the plane.

"Alright boys, we have a lot of ground to cover. Split up to discover more territory. And remember- this may be a city of fugitives, but try to avoid being seen in public or drawing attention to yourself. We don't want to cause a scene. If you find her, summon us with a group phone call and we'll be there."

A montage began, showing Adam standing from a rooftop with a pair of binoculars in his hand, looking for buildings marked with the secret White Fang symbol- the image of three white claw marks slashed in a vertical pattern. He sighed, not finding anything.

The Lieutenant snuck around the alleyways, looking in deserted and abandoned buildings.

The first White Fang goon, without his mask, walked through the streets of what was an area under construction.

The second White Fang goon, also without his mask, walked through a residential area, looking through the windows to see if Maura was there.

The third White Fang goon saw a young teenage girl with long green hair in a ponytail and emerald eyes to match. She wore ivy green jeans and a forest green turtle neck and lime green tennis shoes. She also wore a blue headband in her hair and a backpack slung over her shoulders. He looked closer at her and saw that she held a few letters in her hands.

"Note to self; get a satchel for letters that is separate from the backpack." she spoke to herself in an emotionless voice.

Thinking that she might have been hired to deliver messages instead of a White Fang messenger, he decided to follow her in hopes of finding Maura. The messenger walked up a circle path to a few houses on top of a mountain. The White Fang goon hid behind rocks as he followed the girl, unaware that she was being followed. He hid behind one rock, then another, and yet another. When the messenger got to the top of the mountain, she stared straight at the house in a middle of a small cul-de sac. In the middle was a wooden house painted light blue with a dark grey roof. To the left was a brick house while to the right was a house in the midst of construction or repair, with wood pieces scattered on the floor. The girl looked around and noted that there was no mailbox or P.O box. The faunus hid himself behind a tree as she chose to walk forward to the blue house and knocked on the door.

After two seconds, the door opened, revealing a blonde haired woman in a light blue skirt and dark blue blouse. "Hello?"

"A message for you." the messenger answered.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Here." the woman gave her a tip. "for all your troubles."

She pocketed the lien. "You are too kind, madam."

"It is the least I can do. Messengers have a very dangerous job, and I feel that they deserve more appreciation for it, regardless of whether or not they're first or second class. I presume by your attire and lack of weapon that you're second class."

"If by second class, you mean someone who has no weapon and little to no combat training, then yes. I may identify as a second class messenger, but the labels that society puts on all second class messengers is an inaccurate way of describing me. I know the risks I am taking and have prepared for them to the best of my capability."

The woman smiled and raised an eyebrow. "So you're a smart second class messenger?"

"That's one way of putting it." She took a step back. "I'd stay and talk, but I have more messages to deliver."

"Well thanks again, Ms..."

"Arc. Emerald Arc."

Emerald ran off, not noticing the faunus who spied on her. He saw the two other letters she held in her hands. He didn't see the names, but he did see the settlements that were part of the address of each letter.

 _Zephyros, Argus_

Neither one of those were places that Maura was suspected to be hiding. Damn it. He lost thirty minutes following this girl in hopes of finding something, but he found nothing. He sighed heavily.

 _I suppose maybe it couldn't hurt to check the other two houses._

The third White Fang goon decided to check the other two houses. Peering in through the window of the brick house, he saw a young child playing on a rocking horse. Maura didn't have any children, so that one was out. He then looked at the one under construction. Judging by the fact that many of the walls were missing, he amused she wasn't there.

He groaned. "Oh..."

The scene transitioned to him, his cohorts, the Lieutenant and Adam Taurus standing in the plane nearby the cockpit.

"I can't believe this." the co-pilot complained. "All this waiting around guarding the ship just to get nothing."

The third one answered, "Nothing helpful anyway."

"What did you find?" the pilot asked. "Now I'm just curious."

"I saw a messenger. A human messenger, a girl, about maybe 16 years old, clad in green. The strange thing about her was that she spoke with absolutely no emotion. Her face was completely calm too. Kinda creepy if ya ask me."

"Why were you following her anyway?" Adam asked.

"I'm not sure. I guess for some strange reason, I thought that Maura might have been hiring human messengers instead of White Fang messengers."

"Do you think that emotionless messenger is working for Maura?" the pilot asked.

"It couldn't be her. She didn't lead me to Maura. And the other letters she held in her hands were for recipients in Zephyros and Argus." the third guy answered.

"Why would Maura even hire a human? She hates humans." the first mentioned.

"Well, Maura is at odds with Athena. If a White Fang member asks her messenger where she is, she might lead Athena or her followers to her by mistake. If she were to use a human messenger, she could led Athena and her devotees off her track." the lieutenant answered.

"You have a good point there, Douglas." the pilot began. "Aren't most of Athena's followers in prison though?"

"They are, but a few escaped before they could be captured." Douglas responded.

"And of course, Ares returned to save the leader." the first one added.

"Good to know, but we're still no closer to finding the Mistralian White Fang leader." Adam groaned. "I don't get it. Where exactly is Maura hiding?"

* * *

Unknown to those searching for her, on a high mountain far from the main city of Kunchinashi, Maura stood on top of a rooftop of a wooden cottage.

 _This is bad. I know that I'm safe here. For now, but how long will that last?_ She went through the the trapdoor to the inside of her house, climbing down the step-stool before jumping ground and landing on ground. _With the ever-increasing bounty on my head, the hunt is increasing. I know I have my responsibilities as Mistralian White Fang leader, but how can I manage the White Fang while I'm hiding? I have to find a way to prove my innocence and end this manhunt, but how?_

She made her way to the kitchen and got herself a glass of water before adding some ice cubes to it.

 _I need help._ She took a sip of cold water. _But whom can I possibly call on? I need someone outside the White Fang._ She blinked in realization before grimacing. _It may not be the best idea, but it might be my only option._

Maura began writing a letter as quickly as she could while still keeping it legible. She put it in an envelope, wrote the recipient's address which was blurred out, and the scene transitioned to her standing in the forest in front of a teenage girl dressed in common clothes, wearing a purple hooded jacket to keep warm. Ms. Celandine handed her the letter and a good amount of lien to the messenger. After she was satisfied, she nodded in approval and ran off.

 _Hopefully, she'll answer my plea... And man, that was not cheap._ _450 Lien to deliver the message, plus 500 in hush money._ _The messenger's_ _also second class._ _Maybe I should have hired a faunus messenger outside the White Fang. Little I can do now but pray. Please... if you get the message... answer me... Help me..._

* * *

Four days later, Aoi, Cola, Gilford and Marrok stood on the mountaintop with their White Fang masks on as they looked at the city down below.

"Are you sure about this?" Gilford asked.

"Ye have little faith. We will succeed." Athena answered as she placed herself in front of her followers.

Ares came up to her and asked her, "So you were able to come up with a plan?"

The owl nodded in confirmation. "I have."

"Well, what is it?" Cola asked.

Sometime later, Athena had finished explaining the plan to her comrades.

"Are you sure about this? What if this backfires?" Cola asked.

"It will work." Athena looked more determined than ever. "It's over for them. It's time for them to move over. We'll set this pain up in flames." The wise woman smirked. "It's time to burn it down."


	53. Burn it Down

Do You Ever Wish that You Weren't a Prisoner?/Burn it Down

* * *

Athena stood on the mountain top edge of Argus above the main city. Alongside her were five of her six remaining loyal devotees; Marrok, Cola, Gilford, Aoi and Ares. The six faunus stood as they waited for the signal. Gilford raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure this is gonna work?"

"Positive."

"You said that about the Storming of Sanctum." Cola reminded her coldly. "And yet you, along with most of your forces, were imprisoned here in this very place that we're about to invade."

"That's because I failed to take into consideration that a gifted student would rise above expectations to stop me and because I didn't have a backup plan because I leapt too quickly into Operation: Storm Sanctum." Athena responded back with a frown. "But considering that Ash Nikos is nowhere within Argus, and that I have a plan, backup plan and a backup plan for the backup plan, there's no way they're going to stop us this time. I am certain that this plan will prevail."

"If you say so..."

Cola was not convinced, making Athena turn away, showing a saddened expression to her consort. Ares put his hand on her shoulder. "Athena, we've got this."

"Yeah, we do."

Athena thought to herself, _Everything's in place. Tawny's moved out her things from her apartment back to the airship and is getting into her disguise right now. She's pretending to be on her lunch break as we speak. Now we just have to wait for her to give the signal._

A request for a videochat phone call disrupted her thoughts. It was from Tawny, and she pressed answer. Tawny stood in the deserted bathroom, but she no longer looked like the prison guard she was pretending to be. She had her skin painted to match Maura's darker skin tone. Fortunately, her green eyes were the same color as Maura's, but her hair had to be dyed black and pulled into a ponytail with a green scrunchie. Snake scales had been taped and/or glued on to match Maura's and to hide her cat ears, she wore a green derby hat. She wore an emerald green sundress with shamrock colored flowers along the helm, green open toe heeled sandals and a green ribbon around her right wrist.

"Athena. I have finished making myself into Maura." She lifted her hat, revealing a green ribbon in place of her cat ears. "I even followed your advice to use the ribbon to hide my ears in case the hat falls off." She placed the hat back on. "What do you think?"

Athena smiled. "You look perfect."

"Really? Because I feel ridiculous." Tawny complained.

"Now then..."

Suddenly, the door opened and a female prison officer walked into the bathroom and screamed. 'Maura' got out a laser sword and swiftly beheaded the woman in a flash of green light.

"Sorry about that." Tawny said, sheathing the sword.

"No, you did good. Unfortunately, with that scream, they'll start coming for you. You can either flee the area or fight them, but whatever you do, don't get caught. I'll see you in a bit." Athena quickly hang up and pocketed her scroll before turning to her comrades. "Let's move. And remember, not a foot out of place."

Inside the prison, Tawny decided to run from the bathroom and left before the guards got there. She saw that they had run from the west end and after they entered the washroom, she went in that direction.

The imposter gathered her thoughts as she sprinted up the stairs. _Alright, all the prisoners that I need to save are being held on the last seven floors. The first five have solely faunus prisoners, and the last two have a mix of humans and faunus held in cells. The first floor has no prisoners, that's where the offices are. Mess halls are on the tenth and twentieth floors. I don't need to realize every prisoner, but if I did release a few more prisoners, maybe they'll cause a distraction for them._ _Hopefully Athena won't scold me too much for it._

As Tawny arrived at the top of the 27th floor, she saw the guards walking forward as she hid herself behind the doorway. Using her slight of hand, she grabbed a few sets of keys as they passed by. Looking around to be sure there were no guards, she went to a cell a few doors down from the entrance. The prisoner, a girl who looked to be no more than twelve, noticed 'Maura' as she tried to unlock her cell door.

"Maura?"

"Shh. It's me, Tawny." she whispered. "I'm going to get you out here, but I need you to play along with this ruse to help everyone escape." She unlocked the cell door and handed a set of keys to her. "We need to get everyone on this floor out of their cells and then we set this place ablaze. In the midst of the chaos, they'll try to move the prisoners. We'll arm them with weapons and help them break free. Can you do that?"

She winked. "Certainly, Maura."

"Good. Then let's move."

The two began releasing prisoners, but two male guards took notice. "Hey, what are you doing here?!" one of them asked.

She got out her laser sword and began to cut down the bars of several cells while the first prisoner she released fought against the first guard. It seemed like the lone prisoner was about to be defeated, but soon the newly released faunus prisoners punched and kicked the guards down, saving the twelve year old girl.

"They're trying to escape!" the second guard exclaimed.

"We can't let that happen!" the first guard responded.

Tawny swiftly subdued the guards and quickly inhaled to calm her nerves, running forth as more guards came for her. She fought them off with her laser sword, the green beams fired from it knocking down the guards. Smirking, she said to herself, "Man, this weapon really is powerful."

The guards continued to come at her, but she was not afraid.

Meanwhile, in the washroom where Tawny had disguised herself as Maura, it was brought to Warden Cumin's attention about the murdered guard.

The warden stood with two other guards. "But how could this have been possible?"

"I don't know." the first one answered.

"We heard the scream and thought that the murderer would be here." the second one followed.

"But there's no way a known murder could have snuck in here just to murder a single guard. Keep your eyes peeled, gentlemen. I suspect that we may have a traitor in our midst."

On the perimeter of the prison grounds, Athena and the specialists, sans Marrok and Tawny starring as Maura, looked ahead and saw two guards at the front entrance. Gilford and Cola nodded and Athena did as well, looking at Marrok, who's job was to lead the recruits to their base. She turned and saw as Gilford and Cola ran forth to challenge the guards. As Gilford used his fangs to bite the first guard and wound him, Cola took his whip and lassoed the second one, spinning him as Athena took Ares's hand with her left and Aoi's with her right, flying them into the prison grounds. The three swiftly dashed through the doors and into the prison.

The guy at the desk stood up but was quickly murdered by Ares throwing a dagger at his throat, impaling him as Ares retrieved his bloodied weapon.

"Alright guys, we have 507 prisoners that were at the Storming of Sanctum and not a lot of time before our presence is known to everyone. You guys know your task, so get moving." Athena unfurled her wings. "I must find 'Maura' and aid her however I can. Eventually, at the right moment, she will set this prison on fire. So be prepared and good luck."

The three split up. Aoi took the elevator to the 26th floor, sharpening her sword with a whetstone as she ascended to the near top of the prison. As she did this, Ares made his way on foot to the 23rd floor. Back on the 27th floor, all the prisoners had been released and the guards had been killed.

"So, what now?" the girl asked.

"I need to get you out of here." She ran to the west end of the corridor with the prisoners following her. "There's a few other faunus that are aiding me in my operation. Their names are Athena, Ares, Aoi, Cola, Gilford and Marrok. I'll take you to the last one now and he'll lead you to the ship."

"I'm afraid you're not going anywhere." a female voice said.

Tawny skidded to a stop and found the source of the voice; a woman in a more refined uniform and badge was standing nearby the entrance, glaring at her.

 _Oh crap! The assistant warden!_ the imposter thought.

"You have a lot of nerve, Maura Celandine. But you made a grave mistake coming here." She got out a switch and pressed a button. An alarm went off, alerting everyone that they were there.

As the factory alarm went off, 'Maura' held her hand to her mouth in horror. "Oh no..."

The assistant warden tossed the switch aside and got out a large two handed sword. The woman charged towards the imposter, who was now afraid.

As the alarm blared throughout the prison, Ares groaned as he cut the bars with his sword. "Oh crud."

The view switched to Athena releasing a prisoner on the 25th floor and handing them the keys. She widened her eyes in shock before calming herself and sighing in exasperation. "A bit too soon, but we can work with this."

She flew along as the scene switched to Aoi releasing prisoners by using miniature bombs to blow up the bars, Gilford and Cola running into the prison before showing the dead guards at the entrance and the two seeing the bunch of prisoners from floor 27 all running down the steps.

"Gilford, lead them to Marrok!" Cola commanded.

"Got it!" He nodded to Cola before addressing the crowd. "Everyone, follow me!"

Gilford lead the faunus out of the prison and to Marrok. "Hello there." He took his hood down, revealing his sheep ears to the crowd. "Come with me if you want freedom and a second chance."

"Lead the way." the twelve year old girl said.

Marrok took the crowd as the guards approached them.

"Marrok, move!" Gilford ordered.

He took no hesitation in following his comrade's orders. Gilford fought the army of the guards as Marrok and the others ran. He threw small knives at the guards, getting one in the head, one in the arm, and the rest were dodged. The guards fired away at him and he rapidly tried to dodge them all.

Back on the 27th floor, Tawny was facing the assistant warden all alone. The warden's two handed sword clashed and pressed against 'Maura's' laser sword. "Your days are over!"

She pushed back the imposter fired a gun at Tawny, and her heart pounding in her chest, 'Maura' frantically dodged the incoming bullets as she ducked then jumped from wall to wall. As she landed on the ground, she was shot with a bullet, and although she had an aura activated, she still felt pain as the bullet hit her and sent her into wall. "You'll never stop me!"

"You're one to talk."

The assistant warden took some nearby chains and chained 'Maura's' hands to a set of bars.

 _Is this the end?_ Tawny silently asked herself. _If I die, it's not only the end of me, but Athena's plan will be ruined!_

The assistant warden aimed the gun at her head. "Any last words?"

Tawny looked around and saw something. "You really should be watching your back."

"Huh?!"

A blood curling scream was heard as she was literally stabbed in the back. As her body fell down to the ground, her eyes twitching as she gasped slowly for breath, Athena was standing there, smirking. "Perfect timing on my part."

"So tell me, is it time?"

"Yes, Maura." she answered. "It's time to burn it down."

With the 27th floor clear of prisoners, the cat faunus poured gasoline onto the 27th floor and through the stairway before the 26th floor. Athena took out some fire dust from a bag and threw it onto the gas, setting it ablaze.

The two went down. The impersonator was going a very good job as she used her laser sword to cut through the bars. As a montage began, Athena was shown dragging guards with her grappling hook, prisoners being released, mostly faunus but a few human prisoners were released as well. Bands of no more than thirty prisoners at a time were shown running from one specialist to another to get away from the prison. With her miniature bombs, Aoi blew up the side walls of the first floor and destroyed the stone wall guarding the perimeter and prisoners ran in all directions.

Prisoners on other floors were being released to try and get them out of the burning building, but 'Maura' freed them from their bindings and gave them a gun and a sword. Gunfire, swords clashing, whips cracking, bars breaking and other sounds of conflict were heard through the prison. Some of the released prisoners who knew where the ships were even came back to aid Athena and her specialists. All the smile, Athena smirked as the chaos unfolded.

The montage ended with the 25th floor collapsing. As the riot broke within the prison, many guards found themselves running out of weapons to use. A group of five guards, four male and one female, found themselves running through the hallways.

"There should be more weapons in there." the first one of them said.

A guard quickly punched in the combination only to find that all the weapons in the weapons vault had been stolen.

"Where are the weapons?!" the female guard shrieked.

The weapons, including guns, swords and the like, were in the hands of the escaping prisoners, highlighted by a brief glow around them. As the camera turned back to show them, they saw a shadow with a large sword and screamed. The screen blacked out and in one green slash, the guards had been killed.

The scene switched Warden Cumin growling as he ran up the stairs. "What's going on here?!" He gasped as he saw several prisoners fighting guards with weapons.

Suddenly, the assistant warden, suffering from the effects of the injury Athena inflicted upon her, came running in. "Maura and Athena are here! They're trying to free all the prisoners who were at the Storming of Sanctum!"

"We have to stop them!"

The chaos continued for another twenty minutes, and things had not gotten better. Several prisoners, both faunus and human, escaped in the chaos. Almost all the guards were dead. By now, most of the prison was on fire. The Assistant Warden was lying on the ground, very bloody and too weak to continue fighting.

"We need help!" Warden Cumin cried out in the midst of the chaos. Athena threw one of her boomerangs at him, only to miss.

"But who can we call?" the Assistant Warden asked. "All the police officers are currently dispersed around the city. Headmaster Aurelio's still in a coma, and all the other huntsmen and huntresses have left for missions!"

"Well there's one woman I know who can help us." He ducked and got out his scroll. "Hopefully, she'll answer."

Meanwhile, in the Argus Military Base, a short woman with silver hair and brown eyes stood in a large room with large robotic arms currently being worked on. Caroline Cordovin looked at the mechanics hard at work. She smiled before she felt a vibration on her scroll. Without hesitation, she fished out her scroll and immediately pressed answer.

Before she could say anything, a voice cried out, "Cordovin! Thank God! We need your help!"

"What's the problem, Warden Cumin?"

Sounds of laser and gunfire were heard on the other line. "She's back! The prison's on fire and... Oh crap! AHH!"

"Cumin! Cumin, answer me!" She hung up and pocketed her scroll swiftly, groaning. "Captain Grey," Cordovin looked at a guy wearing a military uniform with grey hair and eyes. "tell everyone in base A1 to get to the ships immediately and prepare for departure at once!"

"But what about finishing the Colossus?" Grey asked.

"Forget the Colossus! Protecting Argus and its people are our number one priority! We must get over to Argus Harbor prison ASAP!"

"Right away, Ma'am!"

But she was already on the move. She moved through the base surprisingly fast for an old woman as the scene transitioned to Cordovin in the sky, standing in an opened up airship as she saw the damage going on below. "I vowed to protect this city, no matter the threat."

 _I just hope I'm not too late..._ she silently prayed to herself.

Back at the prison, Athena stood outside the prison grounds as Argus Harbor Max Security Prison burned to the ground.

Aoi came up to the leader and informed her, "We've got everyone! And we even got some new recruits!"

"Excellent work." Athena applauded. "Now we have to be sure that they're not imprisoned again."

"Hold it right there!" a voice cried out.

Several police officers and guards formed a circle around Aoi and Athena.

"You're surrounded." another voice added.

"Surrender now and perhaps we'll spare you."

"We will never surrender!" Aoi declared.

Athena smirked in agreement. "Let's get em!"

The owl-winged faunus fired away at the law enforcement officers as her grappling hook converted to a pistol. They came for her, but they didn't get far before being knocked down. Aoi swung at the guards with her sword.

As Caroline arrived at the scene from the ground, she saw White Fang members fighting the guards. "Of course. I should have known. Never trust a faunus." She looked even closer as she saw a particular faunus throwing boomerangs at the guards and gasped. "Athena?!"

"What's wrong?" The wise woman caught her boomerangs with her hands before placing them on her hips. Aoi continued to fight the guards. "You seem surprised to see me." She chuckled. "Were you really unaware that I escaped this prison not even two months ago?"

She gave the owl winged faunus a scowl. "I don't know how you escaped, but you won't escape again."

Athena smirked and folded her arms. "Says the woman without a weapon of any kind."

"That's where you're wrong! A good soldier, or leader, is always prepared!" The Atlas military operative got out a small rod that extended into a full size baton with yellow dust.

Athena held her smirk, unfazed by her drawing out her weapon. "I'll admit that I stand corrected, but you really think you can defeat me?"

Cordovin growled and charged forth with her billy club in hand. The Atlas operative attempted to strike the faunus in the back with the stick only to fail as Athena ducked down then quickly moved to the right by jumping into the air, evading the remnants of her electric dust. For a moment, she stood in midair, her back to the ground so that her wings pointed downward before using them to throw a gust of wind at Cordovin, pushing herself up. She lifted her arms and stood her ground to avoid being blown away. As the wind faded, Athena floated a few feet in the air with her wings.

Caroline swung her baton forth, growling as she attempted to jab Athena in the knee, then the shin, and then her right foot, only for her to move up, to the right and then down and block her stick with the grappling hook. As the two weapons grinded against each other, Athena had her smirk once more. "That's your weakness, Cordo! You're too hot-headed!"

Athena threw a fire dust boomerang at Cordo's head, only for her to duck and dodge it. "And like you're any better?!" She heard the boomerang swing back and she ducked again. "You act like you're doing what's right, but you're not!"

The winged faunus caught the boomerang with her left hand. "That's the question. You act like this is all black and white. You believe that all faunus are evil or no good degenerates. That is far from true. Even if the White Fang is as evil as you believe it to be, there are several faunus who _aren't_ aligned with the faunus activist group."

"You mean terrorist group." Cordovin corrected.

Cordovin stuck Athena with her baton, causing her to jolt in pain as electric dust surged through her as she writhed in agony, the Atlas operative took the opportunity to grab Athena by the ankle and throw her into the ground. She tried to handcuff Athena only to get the cuff around her left wrist as she moved her right wrist to the other boomerang strapped around her hips. She took the opportunity to throw it at the Atlas specialist operative, forcing her to let go of the handcuffs as she dodged the fire-dust filled boomerang. Athena flew about fifteen feet into the air, took the handcuffs off her left wrist and threw them at Cordovin to district her as she swooped down and picked up her boomerang.

After attaching her boomerang to her hips, she flew back into the air and fired her gunshots at her from down below with her pistol. Cordo managed to evade most of them through running, but when three rained down directly on her, she put up an aura shield to block them that disappeared in a flash. As Athena looked down on the scene below, she saw a furious Cordovin, growling in frustration. "Come down here, you despicable bird!"

"I rest my case." Athena descended down, landing a few feet away from Cordovin. "So why do you continue, even when you've failed?"

"We will not fail! We never fail!"

"Really? Then what do you call that?"

She moved aside and gestured to the prison. Caroline gasped in horror. "No..."

The prison was almost completely destroyed. The upper seven floors had completely collapsed and the rest of the building was on fire. Several bodies of prison guards were seen on the ground nearby the prison, most likely dead or in critical condition. The gate had come down and wall surrounding the the prison had been cracked into several pieces that could easily be stepped over. As Caroline observed the scene, she heard someone cry out weakly, "They're getting away!" before falling unconscious.

"Argus Harbor Max Security Prison is no more. All of the faunus apprehended during the Storming of Sanctum have escaped. Your men and women in the police force are dead, Warden Cumin among them." Bruna proclaimed. "And Maura Celandine is to blame."

Cordovin balled her fist and attempted punch and swung at her with the baton in blind anger. "Why are you doing this?! What do you have to gain by doing this?!"

"Oh, you have no idea what's going to happen."

Caroline angrily asked, "What?"

Her aura shattered in a flash of blue as Athena jabbed her in the chest with a sword. Then she proceeded to fire her grappling hook around Cordovin, trying to tie her up. She evaded the attack as she spun around, but didn't see Athena advance to fight her once again with her sword. As Athena used her sword counter the baton, she disarmed her by lifting the sword up, knocking the truncheon out of her hands. Then she grabbed her by the collar, pulling her forth as a smirk appeared on her face. "You've lost your aura, and your weapon. Ha. I win, Commander."

Cordovin looked at her angrily. "This battle is not over. As long as I'm alive, I will find a way to stop you!"

She stepped on her foot to try and get her to let go of her, only for her to hold her grip even tighter and fly a few feet into the air. Athena held her sword to Cordovin's neck. "You have no idea how much I just want to kill you, you racist bigot." She stopped and withdrew her sword. "But that would actually hinder my own plan. I have great plans for myself, this kingdom, the world even, but you won't realize what it is, until it is all but too late. Everything you've built will be destroyed. The castaways you enslaved will be free, and when the world you've built comes crumbling down, you will meet your end. Until then, I can't kill you, but I can't let you chase me down either. So I'm afraid this is farewell, Cordovin."

Athena placed her right hand on Cordovin's right arm, moved her other hand to that same arm and threw the Atlas specialist with all her might at a ninety degree angle in the air. Caroline screamed as she fell down from the sky, crashed back first onto the roof and as the bones in her legs broke, she screamed so loud that the entire city heard her. As her scream was heard, a wide shot of the city was shown, with several citizens, including Terra, frozen or trembling in terror from the sound. The view switched to Athena, still in the air, smiling as she heard Cordovin's scream.

"Music to my ears."

"No..." the fallen leader said weakly to herself. Cordo's vision blurred as she saw the winged faunus fly away and the camera showed her point of view as she saw the blue sky filled with black smoke. "Forgive me... I've failed."

As the fire raged on and smoke filled the air, her vision blurred even more and her eyes closed as everything faded to black.


	54. Everything Has Fallen to Pieces

After five and a half days of climbing through the mountains, team JNPR and Ruby Rose had made it through the mountains and were approaching Sumire. All five heroes were on their feet again, making their way through the snow filled fields as a cold breeze slowly nipped at their auras. Pyrrha breathed underneath her red cloak, her breath seen as she exhaled. Ren was slightly tired, and Ruby was trying to keep her head up. Nora was still angry with Jaune, folding her arms and giving him the silent treatment.

"Alright, we should be getting close to Sumire by now." Jaune announced. "Hopefully within the hour we'll reach it."

"I think we could all use a respite." Ren said to his team.

"Agreed. Maybe Nora will finally speak to Jaune again?" Ruby optimistically asked.

Nora hissed at the team leader.

Jaune lamented, "Give it up guys, she's not going to talk to me."

A few more minutes had gone by in silence.

Pyrrha began to think to herself, _Nora's still angry with Jaune. I'm surprised that she hasn't challenged him to a duel or left the group. Then again, she knows how important stopping Cinder is to me. Either that, or she just doesn't want to leave Ren. Is it possible that she's secretly in love with him? I'd ask now, but she might lash out in anger. That'll have to wait until we're in a much better situation._

The so-called "invincible girl" looked at her teammates. Ren seemed calm yet tired, Nora was still holding on to anger, but now both Jaune and Ruby were sad.

 _I should say something to boost morale. But what? Hmm..._

"Look on the bright side." the new co-leader spoke aloud. "We're making good progress. And this rate, we'll be getting a good night's sleep in no time."

He pointed ahead. "Uh, Pyrrha..."

She gasped. "No..."

The village had been destroyed. Many of the buildings were in ruins, but there was no smoke, no signs of anything burnt. A cold chill of fear washed over the heroes before sadness took over, especially for Pyrrha, Ren and Nora.

Nora, who had been angry all day, felt her anger melt away with shock before turning to sadness. "What happened here?"

"Most likely a Grimm attack. Check for survivors." Jaune ordered. "Maybe someone's here."

Everyone agreed to that. They split up to search more ground. As they looked around, the smell of death became more and more apparent.

 _Strangely enough, I'm actually feeling glad that we didn't have to drag Charles here._ Ren thought as he looked at the destruction. He looked for survivors, even moving pieces of rubble but he found only a few corpses. He quickly backed away from them.

 _This place has nothing for us. Only corpses and destroyed dreams. We can't stay here. So much for rest..._

Nora looked at the ruins of a building. She could see a poster of team JNPR on a wall that had not collapsed. They had a yellow sunny background behind them and they had all been smiling. Nora looked at the poster sadly, placing her hand on the poster, her hand on the left arm of Jaune and the right arm of herself. _Why, Jaune? Why did you lie to us? Were we ever friends? Or were you just using us as tools?_

Ruby stood inside an abandoned home. The building itself was not destroyed, but it was deserted. As she looked through each room, not finding anyone dead or alive, saw a pink ribbon similar to what Penny wore. The ribbon was mostly tattered. "Penny..."

She picked up the ribbon, held it in her hand and began to sob.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sun and Blake were in the upper part of Vale in a coastal city. The faunus duo stood on a rooftop nearby the sea as the sun began to set.

Blake looked at the ship below them and asked, "Are you sure this is the best idea?"

"It's our only shot at getting to Mistral, especially since Vale's council banned all air traffic in the kingdom not related to evacuation."

She looked at him in surprise. "Really?"

"You didn't hear the news?" Blake nodded in the negative. "Unfortunately, it is so. Fortunately, we have this backup plan. We'll get on before the passengers start boarding, hide in the cargo hold and wait a month until we get to the village of Vita on the western edge of Anima. When we exit the ship, we'll wear these cloaks to blend in with the crowd and no one will ever know the wiser."

Sun got out a black cloak for Blake along with a brown one for himself.

"Thanks." Blake smiled at her beau. "How did I fall for a stowaway?"

"To be honest, I'm not even sure."

"Come on you dork." Blake put on the black cloak provided for her. "Let's get going before the passengers arrive."

Sun put on his cloak and the two looked around the docks. They were deserted, no one in sight. The two went down to the docks and double checked to be sure no one saw them. Blake took the ribbon from her weapon Gambol Shroud and hooked it on the railing. Sun used it to climb up the side of the ship to the deck. Blake then climbed up and unhooked it before quickly putting away. Sun heard footsteps, so he took Blake's hand and took her into the hallway.

"That was close." Sun whispered.

"I know." Blake whispered. "We need to find the cargo hold." She looked around to try and find the stairway. "This way."

She quickly and quietly lead them to the staircase. As the catwoman moved through the wall, she was light on her feet. The monkey king, however, not so much. He tried being on the tips of his toes but fell over. This almost got them caught by employees... Twice. Blake internally sighed.

 _He really needs to work on his stealth skills._

Once they finally made it to the stairway of grey stone, they went down four flights of stairs to the basement. Blake opened the door and went inside. The cargo hold was a mostly dark area with numerous crates and bags, some of which were stacked on top of each other. The only source of light was an electric lantern on the right side of the wall. There were two circular windows on the left side that allowed for the two stowaway faunus to get a view of the ocean.

As the two situated themselves in the cargo hold of the ship, they uncloaked themselves and set their bags down. Blake folded up her cloak, sighing in relief. "That was close. Too close."

Sun folded up his cloak as well. "You know, it's kinda crazy."

"What is?"

"That I left my team just to try and find and aid you in your mission to stop the White Fang."

"How do you think they're doing without you?" Blake asked.

Sun shrugged. "I don't know. Hopefully, they're all doing well. I left Neptune in charge right before they went back to Mistral."

Blake chuckled. "You left Neptune in charge?"

"Yeah. Why, do you think it was a bad decision?"

"Not who I would have picked, but I suppose he'd do a good job." She looked away sadly. "At least you have a team to go back to..."

"Are you only saying that because you and your friends were separated during the Fall of Beacon and its aftermath?"

"That, and they probably hate me now."

Sun put his hand to hers. "I don't think that."

"You really think they don't? I left them all without warning. Yang was at the warehouse. She probably hates me more than anyone else. Even if Ruby and Weiss made through Beacon alive and well, by now they're probably back in the safety of their homes. I told them I wouldn't run away again, but yet... here I am."

Sun looked at her sadly, trying to find the right words to say. "I think you may be jumping to conclusions too quickly. And besides, even if you're running away, who ever said that running away a bad thing?" Sun took Blake's hand. "You ran away from the White Fang, and that was good because you're no longer a terrorist."

Blake smiled as the ship began to move. "That is true. And it looks like the ship's taking off."

Sun smiled with her, hand in hand. "Mistral, here we come."

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Sumire, Jaune looked around the village but found no one there. As he roamed through the town, he saw an empty house with a white sign in front of it. The sign was faded, but he looked closely and saw that it read, _Caspain Residence_.

 _Another family displaced because of the Fall of Beacon. Attacked in the aftermath, and nowhere to call for help. I should have gone to the tower. Maybe I could have stopped Cinder from taking it down. Can me, Pyrrha and our friends even stop her? Is Nora even my friend anymore? Everything's falling to pieces. My friendships, my hopes, my dreams... Still, it's better than subservience to Rouge. But right now, not so much._

Jaune sighed and turned away, leaving the scene. He got out his scroll and started to type up a group text.

Elsewhere, a cloaked Pyrrha roamed the village by herself. Several buildings had collapsed while others were destroyed completely. As she saw the destruction, she saw a red brick wall that had not been touched by the destruction. She approached the wall to get a closer look at the white paper taped to the middle of it. Once she was close enough, she saw that it had a picture of her along with the following words;

 _Wanted; Pyrrha Nikos_

 _For the murder of Penny Polendina_

 _If found roaming the village, bring her in for questioning but be careful. She's very strong, highly dangerous and will likely resist arrest._

 _Reward; 15,000 Lien_

Pyrrha quietly gasped upon seeing it. She already had people attempt to kill her, but now she had actually been declared with a bounty on her head. It was a small one, and it was only one town, but it was still worrying.

 _If this town has declared me as a fugitive/criminal, have other cities or villages done the same? Am I safe, even with this cloak?_ She looked around to make sure no one was looking and took the poster down. _Maybe I should do more to hide myself._

"Hey you!" She turned in the direction of the voice. A young boy, likely no more than thirteen, with brown hair and blue eyes stood there with an angry glare on his face. "What do you think you're doing?" Pyrrha was unsure how to respond, so she turned on her heel and ran. The boy chased after her. "Hey! Get back here!"

 _Damn it, Pyrrha! Why are you such a coward? Even under this cloak, you're still running away!_ She put the poster away as she ran. _How has it come to this?!_

* * *

A black screen showed a set of eyes with blurred vision blinking twice before slowly opening their eyes as a groan was heard. Caroline Cordovin was shown in a hospital bed with her legs bandaged and held up by white cables.

"Ugh... What happened?" She then remembered her fall and looked at the throbbing remnants of pain in her broken legs. "Oh no..."

The special operative looked the room around her, with light blue walls and a pale blue title floor. To Cordovin's right was a small wooden nightstand with a white cloth over it. Further away from her on her left was a window. Through it she could see the cloudy grey sky and small bits of smoke. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw in the upper right corner the ruins of Argus Harbor Max Security Prison.

 _I've failed... How will I ever explain this to Ironwood?_

The door opened, showing one of the few remaining guards from the prison, who had a broken arm in a sling. He walked into the room with a somber expression and turned to the specialist. "Madam Cordovin. I'm afraid I have distressing news." He walked forward slowly. "All of the prisoners in Argus Harbor Max Security Prison escaped. Also, a majority of the guards are dead, and they're still trying to find the remaining survivors. Even worse than that, Warden Cumin is dead. Cause of death, a slash to the throat with some sort of blade. Unknown who exactly murdered him, but I have a hunch that Athena is directly at fault for it."

"Oh dear..." She blinked in realization, tensing up. "What about the assistant warden?"

"Assistant Warden Paprika is in critical condition." he answered. "She was found unconscious with a wound on her back, likely caused by a literal backstabbing with a dagger. She lost a lot of blood since she continued fighting and right now the nurses are scrambling to find the right blood type. They don't expect her to make it..."

She groaned. "I should have seen this coming... I could have stopped her..."

"That's not the only news. Maura was there."

Cordovin sat up. "She was?!" The guard and nodded. She felt fatigue wash over her and she laid back down. "She was working directly with Athena. First Sanctum, now Argus Harbor. We have to stop Maura before her reign of destruction destroys this city... or worse. But there's something that doesn't make sense."

"And what might that be?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Athena said that she wanted to kill me, but it would hinder her own plan. What is her plan, and why would she want me to be alive for it?"

The guard shrugged. "Don't know, ma'am."

She sighed. "I suppose that's the least of my worries." She looked at the guard. "Is Captain Grey alive and well enough to walk?"

"He is. He's one of the few people that wasn't injured."

"Get him over here. I must speak with him so he knows what to tell the press. No doubt the press is going to have a field day with this news. While you're at it, get me a pen and some paper. I have a lengthy report to write to Ironwood."

* * *

Back in Sumire, Jaune met up with his teammates at the fountain in the center of the village.

"You guys find anything?" he asked them.

Ruby nodded sadly. "Nothing."

"Nothing but destruction." Nora sadly answered.

"I don't think there's anyone here alive. Judging by the smell, this village was likely attacked a few days ago. Anyone who survived had to have left by now." Ren theorized.

Jaune looked around, but saw only three of his teammates. "Hey, aren't we missing someone in our party?"

On cue, the red-cloaked Pyrrha ran in front of them before being tackled to the ground by her pursuer only three seconds. He pinned her wrists down as her hood fell and he saw her face.

"Pyrrha Nikos." The pursuer's glare intensified. "You have a lot of nerve to come here after what you did."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't lie to me, Nikos! Or should I say murderess!"

Jaune got out his sword and commanded with anger in his voice, "Get away from her."

The two turned their necks to see Ruby, Nora, Jaune, and Ren standing before them only a mere ten feet from them.

Ruby got out her scythe. "If you want to hurt her, you're gonna have to go through all of us."

Nora got out her hammer and looked at him maliciously. "Can I break his legs?"

"Hold your horses, Nora. Maybe we can resolve this peacefully." Ren turned to the boy with a meaningful gaze. "Think about it. Do you really want to face semi-pro huntsman and huntresses?"

He looked at them, then looked at his enemy, who looked sad. "Fine. I yield." He got up and pointed at Pyrrha, who sat up in fear. "But don't think that is over, Pyrrha! One way or another, they will find you and they will not stop until you're locked up for good."

The boy walked away from the group, folding his arms as he left. He didn't even look back or say anything else as he disappeared.

Nora raised an eyebrow. "Who does that guy think he is? And more importantly, who is they?"

"You mean, 'who are they?'" Ren corrected. "He mentioned they, that implies that he was alluding to a group."

Jaune put away his sword and asked, "Pyrrha, what happened?" She tightened her fists silently, not saying a word as she tried to hold back tears. He was now even more concerned for her. "Pyrrha?"

"Jaune..." Pyrrha broke down and sobbed into his chest. "Everything has fallen to pieces... And in the aftermath, my worst fear has come true."

He gently embraced her and looked at her. "Pyrrha... What happened?"

The red haired warrior did not say a word as she got out the wanted poster she found earlier. Jaune took the poster, looked over it and gasped. "How... how could they?" He crumbled the poster in his fist. "How could one village declare you as a guilty outlaw?!"

Ruby and Nora both reacted with the same confused, "Huh?!"

Ren looked placed his left hand under his chin and over his right as he looked down slightly, saddened by the news. "Oh dear... I've heard slander against our friend Pyrrha, but this is worse than I could have thought."

"And if one village has declared me a fugitive, who's to say that other villages haven't done the same? Or worse yet, what if this happens on a kingdom wide scale?" Pyrrha put her hood back up. "Even with this cloak, I don't feel safe."

Everyone stood there in somber silence for a few moments.

"There's nothing here for us." Ren stated to break the silence. "We better get moving."

Jaune looked at his friend somberly. "You're right Ren. There's nothing here that can help us." He gestured forward. "Let's go."

And so, JNPR+Ruby left the destroyed village of Sumire. They were all in low spirits as the snow softly fell down on them. Everything had fallen to pieces, and as Pyrrha began to shiver under her cloak, she thought to herself, _How many people see me as a villain? How many villages, cities, towns or even kingdoms want me dead or alive? How many want to kill me for something I didn't do?_ She looked at her white gloves. _And how will I hide myself from the rest of them?_


	55. According to Plan

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys, hope you're enjoying the fall season (or spring if you're in the southern hemisphere). Since I got done with this chapter early, you guys get a double update. Two in one week! Man, I've come far. Fifty five chapters of romance, angst, hurt, comfort, swashbuckling action, adventure and even small bits of humor and horror with over 200,000 words.

-Also, I've toyed with the idea of changing the hurt/comfort genre to angst. What do you guys think?

Anyway, let's get this show on the road!

* * *

In the Schnee family manor, a young man stood in a room with white walls, a blue reflective tile floor, and at the top of the walls there was a thick silver border around the entire room. The white ceiling held a small chandelier in its center.

To the left of the room, in the upper corner against the wall, was a queen sized bed. The bed was lined with a white sheet and blue velvet fleece blanket and had three pillows, two large white ones and a smaller square blue one. In the lower right corner was a small wooden table in front of two blue armchairs. A drawer and a locked square trunk chest rested in between the bed and the blue chairs.

To the right side, there were two bookcases built into the wall side by side. Further down on the right side was a set of white closet doors, currently closed. To the right of those doors was a rectangular full body mirror. In the lower right corner was a black office chair and a wooden desk with three built in drawers on the right side of it. On the left side of the desk was a stack of three textbooks and next to it was a packet of papers and worksheets.

In the center of the wall opposite to the door was a glass door that lead to a small balcony. Whitley Schnee stood nearby the dark blue entrance door with a list of names on a notepad with a pen in his left hand. Many of the names had already been crossed out.

 _Crud. This isn't going well._ He crossed out the last two names on the list. _Everyone's already working on something or have already contributed._ He put the notepad down, placing the front cover of it back so that it covered the list.

 _Now where am I going to find someone to take my request?_

He looked for something in his right pocket, only to not find what he was looking for. He raised an eyebrow in confusion and looked in the other one. He sighed aloud to empty air. _Aw man, I lost it. Hopefully, if anyone found it, they would not understand the significance behind it._

The teenage boy went to his desk and opened the top drawer, pulling out a packet of purple post-it notes. Whitley took one of the notes, the same pen he used earlier, and wrote something down. As he wrote, his bent down posture was seen from the left, obscuring the words written in black ink. He took the note, folded it in half and put it in his right pocket.

 _Who will I turn to now?_

A knock on the door was heard, interrupting his thoughts. He asked, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Irving." the voice answered from the other side. "I just came by to tell you that lunch is ready and waiting for you down in the dining hall."

"Thank you for notifying me. I'll be right there."

He heard the servant walk away and the youngest Schnee sighed to himself. _Looks like revising is going to have to wait. Mustn't keep my family waiting._ Without further hesitation, he left the room unseen, the sound of a closing the door behind him heard.

* * *

Meanwhile, Athena stood on the mountain top behind the semi-destroyed Sanctum Academy. She saw the smoke rising from the city below and the camera panned to show three bullheads where the freed recruits and the new recruits waited for their leader inside the ship. The camera panned to show Tawny, still in her Maura disguise, along with Gilford, Cola, Aoi and Marrok. Ares stood by the side of the 'war goddess'.

"Well ladies and gentlemen, I'd call today an unqualified success."

The 'war god' smirked. "Everything seems to be going to plan. It's going even better than I could have imagined."

Athena smiled in agreement. "With the blame pinned on Maura for attack on Sanctum Academy and the destruction of Argus Harbor Max Security Prison, the bounty on her head will increase dramatically and she'll have nowhere to hide. Not to mention that we have more men to counter Maura's loyal followers, which are dwindling by the day. Pretty soon, Maura and her followers will be no more."

Tawny scratched at her skin in irritation, trying to get the scales off. "Can I please take a shower and get out of this ridiculous disguise?"

"Hey, it does not look ridiculous. You did a very good job of impersonating Maura. And yes, Tawny, you can take a shower."

"Woohoo!" She took off the derby hat and ribbon as she ran off into the first bullhead to the nearest lavatory to cleanse herself and shed the other parts her disguise.

Athena picked up the hat and ribbon. "Almost all the pieces have been set in place."

As she put on the hat and held the ribbon in her left hand, Marrok asked, "So, Lieutenant, I mean, Lady Athena, what is our next move?"

"Well first we should get out of here before the police or military find us. Back to the main ship!" she commanded.

The remaining faunus got on the first bullhead and the airships took off. As the three airships flew off, Athena and Ares looked at their loyal agents; Cola was sitting in a chair as he took out a newspaper of Nina News. Aoi leaned back as she sharpened her sword with a whetstone. Gilford taped his fingers along the chair beside him and Marrok sat down on the ground without his mask, wearing his hood up to try and hide his sheep ears.

"So, when are we going to tell them about the end of the first plan?" Ares asked her.

"We'll wait until Tawny gets back." She tied the green ribbon around her left wrist. "Since she and these other four are our best recruits that managed to escape being arrested at Sanctum, I feel that it is fair that they are the first to hear the full plan."

"Fair enough."

Aoi looked up in surprise. "You're going to tell us the plan?"

"Yes." Athena nodded in the affirmative. "I didn't want too many people to know, so I only told Ares."

"You mean your lover?" Marrok asked.

She frowned at the sheep-eared faunus. "Oh stop that. He is my boyfriend, my significant other. The way you say that makes it sound like I meet with him only for sex."

"Well, don't you?" He gave the winged faunus a questioning look. "I mean, I've heard the two of you doing _it_."

Athena gave him a mean glare as her face turned red. "Marrok, I highly suggest you shut up." Cola advised.

"Uh, what's taking so long?" Gilford asked.

"Patience, Gilford." Athena ordered. "Tawny deserves to know this."

He sighed. "Okay..."

Roughly forty-five minutes later, Tawny stepped out of the shower and walked back to the main room with the others. Her skin was now back to it's original pale after having washed the paint off, the snake scales were gone, but her hair was still black. She wore a brown tank top with a black vest and black cargo pants along with black and white tennis shoes. She was also carrying a pink towel with a red floral pattern in her hands.

Marrok was the first to notice her entering the room. "Ah, Tawny, you're here!"

She used the towel to wrap up her wet hair. "Were you waiting on me?"

"We were. Athena wishes to share her plan with us." Gilford said smiling before turning to the owl winged faunus. "So, Lady Athena, what is your plan?"

"As you already know, by mentioning Maura Celandine at the Storming of Sanctum, and having Tawny impersonate her at Argus Harbor Prison, Maura is being blamed for both of these crimes. With the first crime, Maura has been forced to flee from Mistral's primary White Fang headquarters because of the price on her head. With the second crime, everyone's hatred of her intensifies and the bounty will no doubt increase dramatically. Eventually, she will have nowhere to hide. One way or another, the authorities will find her. And when they do capture her and put her on trial, she will be executed for her crimes. Once she is done with, I'll sweep in and take over the Mistralian Branch of the White Fang. She has no descendants or known successors and I can easily claim that she chose me to take her place in case something were to happen to her. And the rest of the world will be none the wiser. That is when the real change can truly begin."

"You really do have a plan for everything, don't you?" Ares asked her.

The wise woman laughed for two seconds. "Come now Ares, don't you know me by now?"

"I have to admit," Gilford said with a smile. "this is a good plan. But are you sure that this will work?"

"It will work. As long as every single tiny microscopic little thing goes according to plan."

"It seems that it has the potential to go awry."

"You could make that argument, but most of the pieces have been set in place. With the destruction of Argus's most secure prison, the price on her head will increase. Anyone want to take any guesses as to what the new bounty will be?"

Cola shrugged.

"I'd say 250,000 Lien." Gilford guessed.

"Probably 300,000 Lien." Tawny estimated.

Marrok nodded in agreement. "Ditto."

"I think it'll be higher. Probably double the price of her current bounty." Aoi predicted.

"Well, whatever the bounty is, once it increases, the hunt will increase along with it." She took off the ribbon and held it by the tip in her right hand. "And Maura's days will be over." She tore the ribbon in half, then into quarters, eighths, and continued ripping at it until it was nothing more than several tiny pieces. She placed her left hand to her ear with a sense of smiling curiosity. "Maura Celandine, do you hear the bells tolling?" The wise woman took her hand away and smirked evilly. "They toll for thee."

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Mistral, Adam and his entourage were back in the skies.

"Well, we didn't find Maura in Wind Path... What's our next stop?" the pilot asked.

"The next stop is Kunchinashi." Douglas, Adam's lieutenant, told him. "It's an even bigger city than Wind Path, and they've got some more security. We'll need to exercise more caution than we did previously."

Adam looked over a piece of paper in his hands. "Do you really think that Maura will aid you in your goal?" one of the White Fang goons asked.

He folded the paper and pocketed it. "I think we can convince her. If bribery won't work, then blackmailing will. Hopefully, it won't come down to that."

 _If we even find Maura._ Adam began thinking to himself. _This civil war is getting crazier by the day. If she dies before I can find her, this plan will be ruined! No! You will find her, and you will be able to attack Haven Academy. And no one will stop me!_

Elsewhere, Ilia and her associate were setting up camp.

"So, how are we going to find Adam?" he asked his boss.

"If be completely honest, I don't even know." She sighed, throwing another log onto the fire and draping a blanket over her shoulders. "I wish the Albain brothers had given me more to work with. All we've got so far is the status of Maura's whereabouts, but I can't even tell what this keyword is supposed to be."

She showed her associate the message. He answered, "It seems like you're suppose to unscramble the letters here to determine her location."

"I've never been good at unscrambling words."

"Can I see your Scroll for a moment?" She handed her scroll to him and he looked at the picture of Maura's message to Sienna. He stared at the message in contemplation for a few minutes, and after holding the scroll away from him, he blinked his eyes in realization and smiled genuinely. "I know where she is. She's in Kunchinashi."

As Ilia got her Scroll back, she said smiling, "Wow, Hector, you're really smart."

Hector smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. At least now we know where we can go. Tomorrow, we make our way to Kunchinashi."

* * *

Back in the bullhead, Athena and Ares were in their private quarters, with the latter's back to the wall as Athena looked over a blueprint of Haven Academy.

"Everything is going according to plan."

She put the blueprint away in a desk drawer as Ares responded, "Indeed it is. Sometimes I just can't believe how incredible you are."

The 'war goddess' came over to him. "Never say such things, Ares." She fiercely placed her lips upon his, taking one hand to tug at his collar. He responded to her motion by deepening the kiss and setting his foot down. Using her other hand, she held and pinned his right hand against the wall, their fingers entwined as his knuckle met the metal surface. He dragged her closer to him by using his free arm to wrap it around her waist and pull her towards him. Athena wanted him, and Ares wanted her. Athena broke the kiss and cupped his face with both of her hands. "You know how amazing I am in more ways than one."

"I do. You're amazing, incredible. Of all the guys you could have chosen to be by your side- why choose me?"

"Well, let's see." She kissed him. "You're witty." She kissed him again. "You're strong." Another kiss. "You're loyal." Yet another kiss. "And you're devilishly handsome." She stroked his cheek with her finger while looking into his red eyes. "So tell me... of all the women you could have chosen to pursue- why choose me?"

"You're smart." He began as he kissed her. "You're wise." He gave her another kiss. "You're gorgeous." He kissed her once more. "And you're ambitious."

She smirked. "You're damn right I am." Proceeding to put her right arm around his neck, she added, "And to think that this is only the beginning..."

The ram-horned faunus looked at her curiously. "The beginning of our relationship, or your master plans?"

The winged faunus gave him a devilish smirk. "What do you think?"

He didn't answer as he tackled her to the ground and continued making out with her. As his tongue forced its way into her mouth, she responded by snaking her tongue towards him. As Athena did this, she put her hands, slowly and gently gliding them on his head, trying not to touch his horns. Ares placed his hands on her back, placing one arm in between her wings and the other on her left side.

"Sweet victory is so close, I can practically taste it."

The wise woman kissed him again. "We're close." She bucked her hips towards him, the smirk even more smug than before. "So very close."


	56. The Path to Isolation

As the day came to an end, Pyrrha prepared herself for her guard shift. Everyone had their tent and/or sleeping bag set up. Pyrrha still had her hood up, too afraid to show herself out in the open, even when no one else was around that she could see.

"Well, I admit, we've had better days." Ren threw a log onto the fire.

"But we've had worse days." Ruby said in response.

"Hopefully tomorrow will be better." Pyrrha placed a few dead tree limbs onto the fire. "Goodnight everyone."

"Goodnight!" everyone said back.

Pyrrha sat on the log and let the fire warm her up.

 _Oh fire... An element of warmth and an_ _element of destruction_ _. So many lives that have been saved yet so many lost. Mine nearly among the lost...  
_

The red-haired warrior's thoughts turned to Cinder. How she knocked away every one of her metal columns and gears during her duel like it was nothing.

 _She's so powerful. How can I possibly defeat her? I knew I wasn't..._ A new question formed in her mind. _Why did I even attempt to challenge her in the first place?_

The gladiator girl looked at the fire. She knew how dangerous Cinder was, but yet she chose to fight her. But why? For what reason? To try and stop her? For glory? For... power?

 _No. That can't be. I'd never make an evil, selfish grab for power. I'm not like Cinder. But why didn't I get one of the huntsmen or huntresses to stop her? Was I... jealous? No, that can't be it. I'm a good girl, I'm a hero._ She sighed. _But much of the world believes I'm a villain, all because I unintentionally tore Penny apart._ She took out one of Penny's swords and looked sadly at it. _Can I fulfill my promise to Penny? Or am I really walking towards my own death?  
_

As she silently sulked and debated with herself throughout the night, Jaune was curled up in his sleeping bag. For once, he fell asleep easily. He hoped that he'd have good dreams that night.

Of course, he didn't realize how wrong he was.

His dreams began with Pyrrha facing off against a shadow in an underground area. The shadow seemed to be tall woman with short hair and a long loose left sleeve on her dress. Her eyes possessed an orange fiery glow around them. Pyrrha struck her spear against the shadow, only for the shadow woman to dodge it. The shadow formed a large sword that manifested from magic. She tried to hold back the sword with her spear and shield.

 _Pyrrha Nikos will fall._ a feminine voice said in a whisper. He knew that voice. Cinder. _You will be powerless to save her. How does it feel, knowing that she will die and that you can't do anything to stop it?  
_

Milo and Akouo broke, and before she could move, she was fatally struck with the sword in her chest. The gladiator girl fell down to the ground as the shadow of the evil maiden held out the sword with her right hand. A red projection of Pyrrha's soul began falling into the abyss, completely unconscious she fell farther. Jaune wanted to scream, but he found himself unable to speak.

 _It hurts, it burns. Destiny is so cruel, isn't it?_

Jaune found himself mentally screaming, _Pyrrha!_

He woke up, feeling his heart pound as he took in his surroundings. He was alone in the tent and Pyrrha was still guarding the night. The knight groaned somewhat loudly. "Not again..."

 _It seems every nightmare I have about losing Pyrrha is worse than the last._ He paused for a moment and then asked himself, _Is this the last? Or is it far from over?  
_

* * *

The next day in Atlas, Weiss was practicing one of her songs for the concert in the piano room. The calendar on the wall had days 1-6 crossed out.

[cue Path to Isolation, starting at "The light that showed the way is gone... And darkness takes control..."]

As her words were heard throughout certain parts of the Schnee Family Manor, Estelle Blanche stood in front of the grand staircase as she was handed a letter from her follow servant, Klein. As she held the envelope, her eyes darted to the first line in upper left corner. She gasped in disbelief.

"Is it true?"

Klein smiled. "It seems she's finally answered."

"I can't believe it..."

 _My eldest granddaughter has answered me..._

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Klein asked. "Open it!"

Estelle opened the envelope and held it in between her left index fingers and thumb as she looked at the letter in her right hand. She began reading the letter to herself. She smiled at first, then after about fifteen seconds, her eyebrows scrunched closer together and a moment later, she gasped. "No..."

"Estelle? What's wrong?" She stood in silent shock, frozen in fear. "Don't tell me... She's dead?"

"No. She's alive, but... To put it simply, things didn't go well with her over the summer."

Klein looked at his coworker grimly. "What happened? Is she angry with you?"

"She asked me to remain silent about it. And no, she's not mad at me. In fact, she really misses me. "

"Very well then. I just hope that she's okay."

Estelle sighed heavily. "I always feared this day would come... But who would have ever guessed that it would have come to this?" She folded the letter, put it back into the envelope and began walking away. "I think I'm going to my quarters for a while."

As the elderly maid left, Klein stood there sadly, concerned for his friend.

[music is at the instrumental part before "Smile's spinning..."]

As Weiss continued rehearsing, Whitley walked through the servant's quarters, looking for someone.

He saw a young maid with long blonde hair and blue eyes carrying a large folded grey sheet and called for her attention. "Hello. Could you help me?"

She looked at him in surprise, dropping the sheet she was carrying, causing it to unfold slightly. "Oh! Master!" She kept her gaze at him as she dropped to her knees to refold the sheet. "What brings you here?"

"Do you know where Irving might be?"

As she folded the sheet, she answered, "Last I saw him, he has in the laundry room drying towels. I believe it was about three minutes ago."

"Thank you kindly."

He walked further down the halls until he saw an open door with the words, _Laundry Room_ in big black font. As the youngest Schnee entered the room, he saw a wooden room with unpainted walls and a line of several washing and drying machines on each side, only opening on the right side to create an open doorway to another part of the room. The open doorway had a sign on the right of it reading, _Hand wash/Line dry/dry-clean only._ At the very end of the first room nearby a window with purple curtains stood a man in his twenties with strawberry blond hair, green eyes wearing a butler uniform with a green necktie as he held a dirty towel in his hands and waved it up and down to shake the dust off it. This was Irving, who was well known for knowing lots of information and for gossiping.

As he stopped waving, Irving turned to find Whitley standing there. "Ah, Master Whitley! Didn't expect to see you here."

"Apologies." He gave a respectful bow with his right hand behind his back. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"I can work and talk at the same time. So, what would you like to know?

He straightened himself and smiled as his left eyebrow formed an arch. "How did you know I was going to ask for information?"

Irving smirked. "Lucky guess. A lot of people come to me seeking intel and juicy gossip. So, what do you wish to know?"

"I need to know if there are any local artists in the area. Someone who hasn't entered the art auction. Someone unheard of."

"Don't know too many, but there is one I know of that may fit the bill. Her name is Iris Khloris. Rumor has it that she may have once been part of a middle class family of huntresses and huntsmen, but is now poor and living on her own. Also gets teased and ridiculed on a regular basis."

"Do you know where I can find her?"

"I can figure that out and get back to you."

"That would be most appreciated."

"Irving, where are those towels?!" a female voice called from the other room. "Are the dryers empty yet?"

"Alright, alright, calm down!" He sighed. "She's always like this."

"Thanks for the aid."

"You're welcome, Master Whitley."

"Irving!" the same voice from earlier called.

"Hold your horses!" Irving screamed back at his co-worker. He sighed.

"Thanks again, Irving."

Whitley walked out without another word.

 _Alright, now I know what, or rather, who I'm working with._

* * *

In the gardens outside Schnee Manor, Weiss drank out of a glass of water as she spoke to her mother in the garden. For once, Willow was not wasted when speaking to others, but she was kinda tipsy. Weiss told her about her invitation to Atlas Academy.

"So you've been invited to Atlas Academy by General Ironwood himself?" Willow asked her daughter.

Weiss nodded in confirmation. "I have. What do you think I should do?"

"Take it. Who knows if you'll get another opportunity like this? You could get away from here, you could still become a huntress. That is what you wanted, isn't it?"

"It is, but..."

"You would be successful. You'd be free. You wouldn't be... a sl... I mean, stuck here."

Weiss raised an eyebrow before giving her mother a forlorn look. "Mom... Why is it that you drink? Is it because of what father admitted all those years ago?"

Madame Schnee took a sip of red wine from her glass and sat silently for a moment. "One of the reasons."

"What are the other reasons?"

"Please... don't ask me further."

 _Why is she avoiding answering the question? Is there something else she didn't know? Is she on the path to isolation? Or is she already on it? Has she already been down that path and met the end of it?_

"Do you think that I should try to make some new friends? Join a new team?"

"Do what you feel is right, my little snowflake." She took a sip from her glass of red wine. "I just don't want you to be alone." Under her breath, she added, "Like me..."

 _What happened to make her say that?_

* * *

Meanwhile, in Salem's palace, a library with purple and black colored arch domes was shown. As the camera slowly panned downwards, the library was revealed to be as big as a three story building, with wooden stairs on both sides of the room leading up to white carpeted floors with other bookshelves. Footsteps were heard as the first floor was shown to have a few black couches and chairs scattered throughout the room as well as a few black filing cabinets to the left and right sides of the room. The footsteps continued as the camera showed black heels and then showed the owner of said heels- Cinder Fall. As the injured woman reached the third floor, she looked around, walking forward and saw white letters on black paper. Eventually, she found a bookshelf area with the letter 'S'. There were four different bookshelves all placed side by side. Cinder internally sighed and started looking through the books, finding many books that she had never heard of or seen before, and a few she had, such as _Slave to the Sword._

 _Huh. Who knew Salem liked to read for pleasure?_ She continued searching. _Come on, it has to be around here somewhere. There it is._

The fall maiden pulled out a black book with the following words written in silver font on the spine;

 _Silver Eyed Warriors- The Truth Beyond the Legends  
_

Cinder looked at the front of the book, the title being the same. She looked at the back cover, which was blank. Holding the front of the book to her chest with her right arm, her fingers over the text block of pages, she descended down the stairs slowly, being cautious of every step she took. As her descent ended, the maiden made her way to the entrance and used her foot to open the handle of the library's door. She swiftly left the place as though she had never even been there.

The scene transitioned to Cinder shutting her bedroom door with her foot, still holding the book in her hand.

 _If I can't ask Salem for the answers, then I'll just figure them out for myself._


	57. Everybody's Fool

Back in Argus, Cordovin was still in the hospital as the two Nubuck Guards stood with their backs to the camera as she showed a displeased look on her face before looking at Emerald Arc in the lower right corner of the room.

"This was the best messenger you could find?" she asked them, clearly annoyed.

"She was the only messenger we could find." guard one answered.

"We searched the entire city for the last few days." guard two responded.

"And what did we find...?" the first one asked.

"Nothing." the second one answered. "Except for this one."

Caroline looked back at the messenger. She looked emotionless, but her eyes slowly looked around the room, examining her surroundings. Cordovin retorted, "She's not even first class!"

As she returned back to them, the first responded, "You didn't say she had to be!"

"Shall we go and fetch another one?" the second asked.

The Atlas Military operative groaned. "No. We already have her here. We might as well see if she's capable." She looked at the green haired, green eyed messenger. "Ms. Arc, I believe?"

She nodded. "That's me."

"Step forward so I can see you better." Emerald obeyed her instructions as Cordovin looked at the messenger. "So you're a second class messenger."

"That is correct, ma'am."

"And you have no weapons?"

"Nothing but my strength and my wits. And some knowledge on hand to hand combat."

The injured commander raised an eyebrow at her. "And how long have you been doing this dangerous line of work?"

"I have been an active messenger since November 26th of the previous year. Since it is now the 8th of January, that would be approximately six weeks and a day."

"Slightly over a month then. Most second class messengers are Grimm food within a week or two. Yet you've lasted longer than most..." She mused to herself. "Where exactly did you start your journey?"

"In my hometown of Olympia in Vale."

"You're quite a long way from home then."

Guard one said, "There's something I'm curious about."

Guard two asked him, "And what might that be?"

He turned to Emerald. "Why are you speaking with no emotion?"

"Are you a robot?"

"I am not a robot, gentlemen." she answered in the same emotionless voice.

"I don't believe Vale has ever had superior robotic technologies, but I will admit that her blank expression and monotonic voice do seem suspicious." Cordovin answered. "Hmm..." With her left arm, she pinched Emerald on the lower part of her right arm.

"Ow."

"She's not a robot. I could feel her skin as I pinched her. She's a human... and she's still a second class messenger..." Caroline groaned. "She's a strange one, but she'll have to do. How much are you going to charge me?"

Emerald mused to herself. "Hmm..."

 _I'm not traveling very far. If I can find a cheap flight directly to the city of Atlas for less than a hundred Lien, I'll make more money than I lose. All the messages to be delivered to various parts of Atlas can be done quickly. Then I'll move on to the next kingdom; Vacuo. Perhaps I'll be able to sharpen my combat skills and learn those aura techniques. On the other hand, it would be a lot cheaper and easier to take a boat. But it would take longer, and there would be more risk of a Grimm attack. It's not a long distance, then again, I can tell by her tone that she doesn't think I'm capable...  
_

"350 Lien."

Cordovin raised an eyebrow. "Really? That little? I thought you were going to try and milk it for all it's worth."

"I can tell you have little faith in me by your expression and the statements spoken earlier. I'm trying to be courteous."

 _Even if I have no emotion or sympathy._ the genius thought to herself.

"How are you planning on getting to Atlas city?" the injured woman asked.

"I was planning on trying to get a plane ticket to Atlas, or if that is not possible, then I would travel by ship."

She grimaced. "The waters are a lot more dangerous, even if it is a short distance. And trying to get a plane ticket could be difficult... Hmm... Do have other messages to deliver to people in Atlas?"

"I have other recipients in Atlas. Why do you ask?"

Cordovin mused to herself briefly. "Tell you what, I'll give you 200 Lien for delivering the message, and I will personally pay for your flight ticket. In return, you deliver the message to Ironwood as soon as your flight touches down."

"Deal."

"Excellent. Guards, escort this young lady to the nearest airport and get her a flight ticket to Atlas at once."

"Right away." they said in unison.

"If you would kindly follow us..." the first guard began.

"we will lead you to your destination." the second guard finished.

"Lead the way, gentlemen." Emerald stated.

And so, the Nubuck guards and Emerald Arc left the room, leaving Cordovin alone again. She stared out the window into the blue sky as the scene transitioned to...

* * *

The JNPR+Ruby campsite in the woods. As the sun started to rise over the frost and snow covered land, the day began with Jaune Arc waking his teammates up. He gently nudged their shoulder to wake each teammate, starting with Ruby. "Rise and shine, Ruby."

Upon being woken up, Ruby sat up, stretching her arms and yawning. As she sat up, Jaune went to Ren and nudged his shoulder. "Wake up, Ren."

Ren opened his eyes and stretched his arms. "Good morning Jaune."

Jaune looked at Nora, sound asleep, with a worried expression. Pyrrha came out of her tent. "So, how are you going to wake the sleeping giant?"

Almost begrudgingly, Nora got up. "No need." She got out of her sleeping bag, yawning. "I woke up at the sound of Pyrrha's voice."

"I'm not sure whether to be relieved or terrified." The valkyrie gave the knight a mean glare. "Ok, slightly terrified."

She continued giving him the mean glare, much to Pyrrha and Ruby's dismay. The green eyed warrior sighed as everyone else packed up their bags. After breakfast, the quintet was on the road again. They had been on the road for two hours, but hardly a word was spoken. Nora still had her angry face glaring at Jaune. If looks could kill, he would have several holes in his head at this point.

"Man, it's awfully quiet..." Pyrrha noted.

Nora folded her arms. "I have nothing to say to Jaune. Nothing nice anyway."

Jaune sulked, his head hanging in shame while slouching slightly. "You don't need to tell me that I messed up, Nora. At least I can realize that..."

"She hasn't spoken to him in a week." Ruby noted. "Shouldn't we do something?"

"Don't force it. These things take time." Ren responded. "Also, this is not the first time someone has betrayed Nora's trust."

Jaune straightened himself and asked, "How long does Nora hold grudges for?"

"It depends on the person, and what they did. It can be anywhere from a single day to many years..."

"Well... That's reassuring." Jaune sarcastically quipped. "So what are we going to talk about?"

"The price of tea in Mistral?"

"Ha ha."

Silence permeated for a few moments before Ruby spoke up. "You know, there is something I've been wondering about."

"And what might that be?" Pyrrha asked in response.

"What exactly happens when a team loses or even gains members?"

"Teams losing members... Well, that actually varies from one school to another. Beacon Academy believes that no one should be left behind. If a team member dies or leaves for any reason, then what they would do is they would search for other solitary students of that same year and form them into a group. For instance... let's say... that I didn't survive the Battle of Beacon, and that Ruby's teammates all disappeared. Seeing as you all started in the same year, the four of you would form a new team, like team RNJR (Ranger). Or would it be JNRR (Junior)?" Pyrrha shrugged. "Who really knows? Anyway, they do this until no more teams can be formed. Oftentimes, the remaining lone students are eligible for extra assistance, such as having accompaniments for missions. Many of the reformed groups end up being a success.

"Haven Academy has a different view. Their motto is stick together no matter what. If a team member dies or leaves, the team still sticks together for the rest of their days. This holds true even if it's reduced down to one person, but that's extremely rare. If the leader dies, however, that's another matter. Usually, leadership goes to the next person who's initial is in order. In team JNPR's case, if Jaune couldn't be leader, it would go to Nora. If neither of them could be leader, it would go to me, and none of us could lead, it would go to Ren. Or in some cases, if the team finds the leader on his/her deathbed or before he or she leaves, they might just choose who they want to lead in their absence. Some say that this system of moving on is a good thing, yet others argue against it.

"Atlas Academy is entirely different. If any one team member dies, ends up missing for a significant period of time or leaves for any reason, the entire team dissolves. They become lone students, or lone soldiers as they're referred to by Atlas Academy students and staff, and even get their own single dormitory rooms. From there, they have two choices; to remain solitary students for the rest of their days, or to join the Team Reformation Queue, where they will try to match solitary students with other solitary students in their year. However, there is no guarantee that students desiring a new team will find teammates, or that they will like the new teammates they've been assigned.

"According to statistics I've been told by various Atlas students during the tournament, because Atlas students are encouraged to stand alone if they must, only about 40% of solitary students will seek out new teammates. Of those students, 10% will never find new teammates. Fifty percent of all reformed teams dissolve within their first year to irreconcilable differences or incompatibility. Of the all reformed teams, 30% of them report being unhappy with their teammates and roughly a quarter have reported getting into major fights with their new teammates. Many argue that this system is flawed, leaves students lonely, and that it fails to keep morale. Yet some teams, such as team CRME, have managed to find good teammates and longtime friends.

"Shade Academy is probably the closest to our situation. Their motto is that no one gets left behind no matter what. Any team that loses one or more of its members is added onto another team. These groups of five to seven people are called squads. The add-ons join the team for missions, activities and other activates. Sometimes they even share the same room. Oftentimes, the group is referred to as team name plus names of other members. Or sometimes they try to come up with a custom name for the new group. Most of the time, this works fairly well. Roughly 80% of all squads are content with their extra teammates. And if they can find other add-ons to form a new team, a new team can be formed.

"All three to two man teams and lone students are able to join the Vytal Festival Tournament. They can even hire stand-ins, but it's not very common. It is possible for these incomplete teams to win, but it can and has been done. It's even rarer for a stand-alone student to win, but it has happened twice; once twenty years ago, and once more two years ago."

Ruby was silent for a moment before asking, "Who won the last tournament? The one that... wasn't crashed?"

"The last winner of the Vytal Festival Tournament was a young girl named Claire Blanche." Ren answered. "She was a lone first year student from Atlas, only thirteen years old."

"Claire Blanche? Who's she?" Jaune questioned curiously.

"She's a young yet highly skilled warrior and extremely gifted fighter. Some call her the Pyrrha Nikos of Atlas. Claire Blanche was the youngest student to enter Atlas Academy, and the youngest to be admitted to any huntsman academy at the age of twelve. She will be returning as a fourth year student fairly soon, and, assuming that she survives and graduates, will be the youngest trainee to ever graduate from a huntsman academy."

Ruby scratched her head. She knew she got into Beacon at fifteen, thanks to the headmaster's approval, but twelve? That seemed a bit too crazy to be true. "Twelve years old? How did she get in?"

"That my friends, is a story for another day. For we have finally arrived at a safe place." Ren answered, looking at the village below him. "The village of Cachée."

They all smiled upon seeing the village, even Nora. For once they were able to find a town that had not been destroyed. As they entered Cachée, they found themselves at a curved three path crossroads. The left led to a bustling marketplace, with various items ranging from meats to warm drinks, a few items of clothing such as coats and hats, to wooden carved objects to metal and/or glass works.

The right led to a residential area, with small houses including log cabins and cottages. There were a few bigger houses, more mansion like, but not very many of them. The heroes even saw a ten story building, with a tall sign in the distance reading, _Comforting Inn_. They were happy to find lodging so easily. This was the last major settlement in Vale. Once they left this village, they would be in the outskirts of the kingdom. And who knows what danger awaited them there?

"Alright, we should be able to find a hotel room for five there. Onward we go!"

Pyrrha asked, "Hey Jaune. You mind going to the hotel without me? I'll catch up with you in a moment."

He raised an eyebrow. "May I ask why?"

"I... I just need some time to myself."

"Alright. Just text us when you arrive at the lobby."

The four walked on without her. She roamed the village, looking for wanted posters, but there were none. There was no indication that this village was against her, but she still found herself scared. Was it paranoia? Or was it something more?

The red haired warrior thought to herself, _I'm not safe, even with this cloak. It seems everyone has come to believe I'm a murderess. That's the Pyrrha they see now. Everyone believed that Pyrrha was the 'Invincible Girl', an unstoppable warrior, a girl who would become a hero. I knew that first part was not true, even if I wanted to believe it at times. And if Charles Mustard, who had the ability to uncover secrets with his semblance, never saw the truth, how could I possibly convince all the accusers that I'm innocent? That I'm not the villain they believe I am. I don't even know who I am... How can I defend Pyrrha if I don't even know who she is?  
_

She searched most of the village, but had found nothing indicating that she was being hunted. Not in this town anyway. As she stopped to rest on a bench, the lone red-haired warrior found herself in front of a costume shop. She looked at the costumes in the window- on the right side were costumes for a dragon, a cat and a princess. On the left side were costumes for a sorceress and a witch.

 _I know it's way past Halloween, but maybe I can find something useful here..._

The girl entered the door and looked around at the inventory- costumes as far as the eye could see, ranging from common jobs like firefighters to fighters like soldiers, animals such as the bee and the fox, and even Grimm costumes. As she walked through the store, her attention turned to a wall with many masks over it. Many of them were in assorted colors of green, purple, black, white and silver. There was one mask that stood out to her- a red masquerade mask with silver designs and blue feathers on the tips.

She took the mask and held it to her face, looking at herself in the mirror. As she stared at her own reflection, she almost didn't recognize herself. She took the mask off and looked in the mirror before putting it back on again. She did this once more before standing to herself.

 _If Pyrrha Nikos is labeled as a villain, which is far from the truth, and she doesn't even know who she is, then perhaps it's time for her to disappear..._

The red-haired girl continued to walk around the store, picking up a few other items- a pink headband, a black purse with a long shoulder strap, black elbow length dress gloves and a red and silver bracelet. As she was shown handing the clerk some money, she took the items and went into the nearest dressing room.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Mistral, Athena sat on the bed in her tent, smiling as she read the newspaper. "I must say, this is going a lot better than expected."

Ares entered the tent. "What it is, my lady?"

"Guess what the current bounty on Maura's head is?"

She showed the newspaper to him and he took it. "No way! 500,000 Lien?!"

"That's more than double what her current bounty was prior to the destruction of Argus Harbor Prison." She made a victory gesture with her right fist. "Maura, your days are numbered!"

"So then, what's our next step?"

"The next step is simple. While we wait for Maura to be caught, it's time to prepare the squad of messengers. Once Maura is caught, trialed and executed, I will have to act quickly to secure my hold as leader of the Mistralian White Fang."

A woman with claws came rushing into the room tent, collapsing as she ran in. "Lady... Athena..."

Ares looked at her angrily, pointing a spear at her. "Who are you and what are you doing here?!"

"Calm yourself, Ares." She put her hand on his shoulder. "She's exhausted and in no shape to answer any questions."

He retracted his spear. "I suppose you have a point there."

The scene transitioned to the woman sitting in a chair to a wooden table on one side with Athena and Ares on the other. Athena asked her calmly, "Now that you've rested and been hydrated, answer me; Who are you and why are you here?"

"I am Negra." She bowed her head in respect before looking at her again. "I heard about your attack on Sanctum and have decided to pledge loyalty to the Revolutionists. Unfortunately, I have bad news to bring; Sienna Khan is here."

Athena was not pleased to hear the news, but Ares was even more angry. "What?!" Ares exclaimed. "This can't be!"

"I'm afraid so. I faced her in battle myself. I barely escaped from her wrath!"

"This is not good. If Sienna finds Maura, this could ruin everything."

"It is certainly not good, but even then, we're not out just yet." Athena remarked. "The hunt is increasing- and if Sienna Khan tries to aid her best friend, then she may very well perish with her. Or perhaps, Sienna will never even find her. Maura is still going down."

* * *

The scene switched to JNPR+Ruby minus Pyrrha. The four were in their hotel room- a spacious area with two queen sized beds, a red couch that had a mattress stored within it, a TV in front of it, and in an adjacent area to the left, a kitchenette, wooden table and chairs, and even a hanging closet across from the bathroom. The walls were a simple light shade of green and the carpet was black.

"I gotta admit, this is a really nice hotel room. And we got it for cheap!" Ruby exclaimed. "Only 110 Lien a night."

"I can't believe it either." Nora smiled as she jumped on the bed closer to the wall. She flopped back-first onto the bed. "Maybe our luck is finally changing for the better."

Ren chuckled. "Try not to jinx us."

Jaune was staring out the window. Ruby looked at the team leader with concern. "She still hasn't responded back yet, has she?"

He sighed. "She didn't really explain herself before running off. My best guess? Looking for wanted posters and tearing them down."

"Do you really think that this village wants to see her thrown into the slammer or worse, killed?"

Before he could answer, Jaune's scroll suddenly beeped. He checked it immediately. "It's from Pyrrha. She's asking us to meet her outside the hotel."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Nora asked. "Let's go!"

The group went down to the outside of the hotel. They found her with her cloak open and her hood down. Upon seeing their friend, they all looked surprised. Pyrrha still wore her red cloak, but she was no longer wearing her traditional attire. Instead, she wore the same red maxi dress that she danced with Jaune in a black purse around her right shoulder, which was parallel to her duffel bug on her right side at her waist, black elbow length gloves, and a red and silver bracelet on her left wrist. But the two things that stood out the most to them were the pink headband in her hair and the red mask on her face.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked. "What's with the disguise?"

"Do not call me by that name. At least, not in the public view. I'm giving up my identity."

"You're throwing away your identity? But why?" Ruby asked.

"Too many people see me as a criminal. It's hard to figure out who I am if everyone accuses me of being something that I'm not. Also, back in Sumire..." her voice began to break. "my worst fear came true." She breathed in to calm herself. "There's a price on my head. It's a small bounty, and it's not kingdom-wide... But it's still a bounty. I can't face the world like this. So I disguised myself. Besides, my identity as the so-called 'Invincible Girl' was destroyed a long time ago."

Jaune looked at her grievously. "You really think everyone, aside from us, thinks of you as a criminal?"

"I know your parents and your sisters don't see me that way, but for the most part, yes." she answered him. She turned to everyone else. "Everyone believes I'm a criminal. And if Charles Mustard, who discovered Jaune's knowledge, memories and secrets, couldn't see the truth, I don't think anyone can. It's over. Pyrrha Nikos is no more."

Somber silence reigned for a few moments, no one knowing what to say. "I understand your decision, although it is far from an easy one." Ren stated. "Nice work on assembling your outfit."

"Thanks. It feels like it's missing something. Something like... a ribbon."

"Something like this?" Ruby asked, pulling out a pink ribbon. "I found it in Sumire, and took it to honor Penny."

"Penny... The reason we're on this quest... It's... beautiful." Pyrrha said in between sobs. "It'll do perfectly."

Pyrrha took the ribbon from Ruby's hands and tied it around the pink headband after taking it off. She then made a bow with the ribbon and tied it tightly. After putting the headband back on, she put her hood up and closed her cloak.

"So, if you're not Pyrrha Nikos... Who are you?" Nora asked.

"Pyrrha Nikos has disappeared. From this day, I am now Rouge Gorlois."

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's your new name?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"Uh, don't you remember...?" Jaune began.

"Oh... Right... That." Ruby and Nora looked completely confused as Ren raised an eyebrow. "Rouge Arc, from whom I derived my new alias, is Jaune's eldest sister who was really horrible to him. This dress that I wear also belonged to her."

"How did you get this anyway?" Nora asked.

"She just give it to me, not really caring since she had lost the duel against Jaune."

Ren titled his head slightly. "Do you guys hear something? Like crying?"

The quintet turned to their left and against the wall, found a little girl, no more than six years old, sobbing, holding a plushie doll of Pyrrha in her arms. "Pyrrha..."

Under her cloak, 'Rouge' held her mouth open. This girl was crying over her hero. She didn't hate her.

"What do we do?" Jaune asked.

"You go ahead. I'll join you soon."

"Here's your key card. Room 214."

He handed her a key card and the remaining team members left for their room. As soon as the door to the hotel closed, the cloaked woman approached the little girl and sat down next to her. "Are you okay?"

"No..." The little girl sobbed, the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Pyrrha Nikos is gone..."

She hesitated to speak for a moment. "What happened to her?"

"She... she fell... perished in Beacon..." she answered between sobs. "She's gone... " Another sob. "Gone forever..."

Under the cloak, Pyrrha looked down. She didn't want to blow her cover, but she still needed to reassure this young girl.

 _What do I say to her? With the bounty on my head, I can't risk showing myself to anyone. But this girl believes her hero is gone... I can't just do nothing..._

The former gladiator girl looked at the stars and asked the little girl, "Do you believe in destiny?"

She sobbed. "No. I don't even know what destiny is!"

"Well, destiny has many meanings. I've always believed it to mean a goal in life that you work towards, and the choices you make that lead you to become the person you're meant to be. And you know what I believe? I believe that Pyrrha's destiny isn't quite finished yet."

She stopped sobbed, and a sniffle was heard. "You really think so?"

"I do. I believe she's out there, somewhere. She shall return one day... to fulfill her destiny."

"Thank you." She wiped away her tears. "I'll pray... for her safe and swift return." She looked at her Pyrrha plushie and faintly smiled. "Thank you, Scarlet Lady."

"You're welcome. Keep your chin up. Things will get better with time."

The little girl stood up. "Thank you so much Mrs...?"

"Gorlois. Rouge Gorlois." she introduced herself.

"Thank you, Mrs. Gorlois. I won't give up on her."

As the little girl walked away with renewed faith in her hero, 'Rouge' looked away, guilty.

 _Destiny? I don't even know what that truly is. I feel like a hypocrite._

As the not so little girl gathered her thoughts, she entered the hotel lobby and walked by the counter to nearest stairway. She felt fortunate that no one could see the troubled look on her face as she ascended the stairs to her hotel room.

 _I hope my words can ease this poor girl. I feel bad that I can't tell her the truth. My image... The false image everyone saw, it was perfect by nature. Lies about a world that never was and never will be. They would all bow and stare in wonder. I feel horrible. How could I not tell her who I truly am? But without my mask, where will I hide? As I run and hide from those who hate me, I still fear I'm slowly marching towards the end. One day, I will have to fight Cinder and fulfill my promise to Penny. Or die trying... But that's something Pyrrha will have to face. Not Rouge.  
_

She got to the second floor entrance and stood in front of the door. As her black gloved right hand was placed against the door, she sighed and looked down.

 _Pyrrha Nikos isn't real anymore, and she can't save anyone. Somehow, now... I'm everybody's fool._


	58. Ringing Hell's Bells

Author's Notes;

-As much as I'd like to take credit for the long list of Mistralian huntsmen and huntresses (more of which will be seen and/or mentioned later), these are all names Roosterteeth came up with. (Save for the late Phoenix Nikos. RIP.) Those who are seen, I'm just hypothesizing what they look like.

-Also, in case you can't tell by the chapter title, we've got more darkness coming up, mainly in the first two sections. Buckle up, boys and girls! We're in for a wild ride!

-And it's even more so befitting since today is Hallow's Eve. Happy Halloween, everyone! Hope you enjoy all the candy you desire!

Alright, back to the program.

* * *

Arthur Watts had just arrived in Mistral city to meet with the informant. As he stood in the alleyway of a lower level in the city, his left foot to the wall as he leaned against it, the doctor looked at the list of huntsman and huntresses given to him by Salem. He also pulled out a separate list of those who were located in Mistral city, with notes in parentheses next to many of the names.

 _Mistral city huntsman and huntresses;_

 _Andrews, Rory (inactive for five years, worked as a carpenter, died January 1st, 80 AGW of an uncertain infection)_

 _Choi, Lali (currently hunting down Maura Celandine)_

 _Cowan, Dove (on paternity leave as of one month ago)_

 _Durham, Azura_ _(currently hunting down Maura)_

 _Erdos, Mauve  
_

 _Forhan, Roux (retired)_

 _Griffin, Blanka (Carmina's younger sister, member of team CUBB (Cubeb), hunting Maura Celandine with teammates)_

 _Griffin, Carmina (Blanka's older sister, leader of team CUBB (Cubeb), hunting Maura Celandine with teammates)_

 _Hunt, Terra_

 _Hyacinth, Zach (permanently injured and forced into early retirement)_

 _Kreiss, Amethyst (inactive for a year, on maternity leave as of two weeks ago)_

 _Li, Midori_

 _Lin, Fuschia (currently on a bounty hunt for Maura Celandine)_

 _Lunsford, Harkin (also on a bounty hunt for Maura)  
_

 _Nash, Inigo  
_

 _Nikos, Phoenix (already dead along with her husband Merle (CEO of Grand Industries), both killed by unknown in October 79 AGW)_

 _Page, Orion_

 _Rhodes, Cascade (bounty hunting Maura Celandine)_

 _Rivas, Aoi (status uncertain, not relevant target, also inactive for a year)_

 _Shields, Heather (also hunting Maura)_

 _Shiro, Wan (also hunting Maura)  
_

 _Silver, Stark (Vytal Festival Tournament Champion who dueled everyone alone and won twenty years ago in 59 AGW, also hunting down Maura)  
_

 _Varga, Viola (inactive for two years, has a part time job as a musician)_

 _Vaccaro, Farrow (hunting Maura)_

 _Yu, Lotus_

The technician mused to himself, _I suppose it couldn't hurt to get started on the long list of targets._ _Now where do I begin? Hmm..._ _I know that the Griffin sisters, along with their other teammates from Wind Path and Argus have already left to hunt down the infamous Maura Celandine. Several others have left to hunt down Maura Celandine as well._ _Aoi isn't relevant._ _Phoenix Nikos is already dead, which makes my work a little easier. But who could have murdered her and her husband, and why? Oh well. Guess that doesn't really matter.  
_

He crossed out Phoenix Nikos.

 _Rory Andrews is also dead._

He crossed out Rory Andrews.

 _I also can't kill all the targets at once, lest the common folk get suspicious._ _I suppose I'll go for the weaker targets first. To start, I'll kill at least three that are currently in the city. Hmm... Of those who are currently here, who do I target first?_ The doctor took out a black device with a pure silver rod on the front. He looked over the list again. _I think I know who I'm going for.  
_

The scene switched to Watts entering a small house. A red-haired man with grey eyes wearing a business suit with a red bow-tie saw him as he entered through the front door and shut it behind him.

"Hey! How did you get in here?!" Mr. Forhan asked angrily.

"Oh, Roux, you're asking yourself too many questions."

The doctor got out the device with the silver rod, turned it on, and electricity began to surge through the tip of the device. Roux charged towards him, only to have the silver rod touch his chest and be electrocuted. As he screamed, several small bolts of purple lightning exited the silver tip and severely shock him.

"Don't worry, it'll be over soon." So much so, that his heart stopped. As the charred corpse fell to the floor and shut its eyes, Watts smirked. He turned off the device. "One down, and several more to go." He crossed off Roux Forhan. "Alright, who's next?"

The scene switched to him standing next to a woman with short purple hair and forest green eyes. She wore imperial purple capri pants with a forest green tube top, an amethyst pendant necklace and plum colored boots. This was Mauve Erdos. As she stood behind a couch, Watts stood there with his active device in hand, trying to creep towards her and shock her.

"You'll never take me alive!" she declared as she threw one of her hand scythes at his right hand.

"I'm afraid to disappoint," He barely dodged the scythe Mauve threw at him. As the scythe hit the wall, he stood up and smirked. "but the Grimm Reaper has come for you."

He dodged the other scythe thrown at him as he slid down and the silver rod device touched her leg, electrifying her with purple bolts and killing her in no time. The scientist smirked and crossed out Mauve Erdos.

The scene switched to him finding a crippled man sleeping on the couch with a walker nearby. He had purple eyes and blond hair, wearing tan pants and a lavender shirt. He had bandages around his legs. Watts stealthy made his way over to him and turned on the device he used earlier.

The man began to wake up. "Huh?"

"Lights out." He shocked the former huntsman and he was killed by electricity instantly. Arthur smirked as he crossed out Zach Hyacinth. "Ha. This is too easy."

As he left the room, he thought to himself, _Excellent work Watts. You've made a good start. Now to Haven Academy._

* * *

Elsewhere in Mistral, Hazel came across a huntress in the wilderness. She had long fuschia hair that flowed loose and purple eyes, the right of which was covered by her bangs. She wore a red and purpleish shirt with long sleeves and a fuscia pink skirt with black leggings. She also wore cherry red heels and had a hot pink sniper gun rifle in her hands.

Without looking at the pictures given to him in the files, he identified the huntress in a snap; Fuschia Lin. He continued to watch as she slowly moved forward, her gun in front of her. "Maura has to be hiding here somewhere." she spoke to herself. "That reward is all mine."

"And what makes you think that it will be yours?"

It was at this point that Hazel removed himself from hiding. He leaned his back against a tree and waited for her response.

"Because I'm strong, I'm smart, and I'm super great with my aim. I never miss my mark." Fuschia boasted.

"You're strong, I'll give you that. But are you strong enough to face me?"

"Huh?!"

He ran towards her and quickly punched her in the gut. As she was thrust back-first into the tree, she barely got out of the way the time to avoid his second punch. As he punched a hole right through the tree that the huntress just had her back to, she gasped in horror at Hazel's strength.

"Oh crap." she muttered.

He came towards her again and Lin was punched into the tree. Only this time, she was hit with enough force to be knocked back-first into into the first tree, then stomach- first into the second one, and as she hit the third one, fuschia pink light was seen around her. Her aura was running out. As this cycle repeated for three more trees, her aura flickered and vanished as she landed face-down in the dirt. Hazel approached the huntress, ready to put an end to her.

"No, please... Don't!"

Hazel payed no heed to her words and stepped on her back forcefully with one of his boots, breaking her spine and killing her.

"Another one down." Hazel spoke to empty air.

He looked at the list and looked for her name. As he looked at the names of the huntsmen and huntresses in Mistral, he noted some of the hunters he already murdered.

 _Hawthorne, Lucero (Argus)_

 _Raine, Boyd (Argus)_

He crossed out Lin's name.

 _I have to admit, taking down these huntsmen and huntresses while looking for Adam is almost too easy. Child's play even._

* * *

Back in Mistral city, at Haven Academy, Leonardo Lionheart stood in his office, pacing rapidly.

 _How could I do this? How has it come down to this?_ he asked himself mentally. _Standing on the line between good and evil, light and dark, not sure what to do. Wanting to be good but doing bad things. How could I have come down to this?_ He stopped his pacing and opened his eyes in realization. _Oh wait... Why am I asking myself this question? I know how this madness started... And when it all went downhill...  
_

Fifteen years ago, he was in the wilderness, fighting off several Grimm to prevent them from attacking the nearby village of Higanbana. His hair was a lot longer and neatly brushed and he did not have a beard. He wore a beige blouse and undershirt along with dark brown slacks and dress shoes. He also carried a pocketwatch with him. He had his shield, Stalwart, activated and had the top point over the red dot.

With a red grid glyph above the shield, he fired multiple flaming rocks in rapid succession at the Beowolves coming towards him. Seeing more of them coming his way, he took the top point to pin it on the light blue circle. A blue grid glyph replaced the red one that had been there moments ago, and he switched from firing flaming rocks at them to freezing some their limbs, slowing them down. He threw his shield at them like it was a deadly frisbee and it pierced through the skulls of a few wolves. As some of the Beowolves were knocked down, even more came his way.

Unfortunately, he didn't realize was that a few Ursa were behind him and slashed at him from behind. Tumbling to the ground, he quickly got up and quickly retrieved his shield, only to have one of the Ursi swat it out of his hands and have it stepped on by one of the few remaining Beowolves. Unsure what to do, he began to back away from them only to back into another Beowolf. The lone Beowolf growled at him and one of the ones in the front lunged at him. He sidestepped to avoid the one charging at him, but soon found himself surrounded by them and was knocked down by several of them, taking several hits from them. As he found himself lying on the ground, sitting partially up, several Grimm leapt towards him.

Cowering in fear, he closed his eyes, believing this to be the end for him.

"Stop!" a commanding voice ordered.

Opening his eyes in panic, Leonardo looked upon the Grimm stopped dead in their tracks and a woman in a long black robe approaching him. She had deathly pale skin, with dark purple veins lining her face and arms, and a black diamond-shaped marking in the center of her forehead. She also had pale white hair in a large bun with six offshoots wrapped together that suspended several obsidian-colored ornaments. He had never seen her, but he knew exactly who she was.

He looked upon the Grimm goddess in both awe and fear. "Salem?"

She faintly smiled. "Hello, Professor Lionheart. I have to admit, you're more persistent than I thought." One of the Beowolves growled at him. Salem extended her hand at the Beowolf. "Stay."

"Wh.. what are you doing?" Some of the other Grimm tried to creep towards him, but Salem kept her hand up. "You... you're saving me?! Why are you doing this?! Do you want to kill me yourself?!"

"Calm down, Leo. I have no intention to hurt you. I just want to make you a deal. Now stand up and listen closely."

Breathing in slowly and exhaling softly, he stood up and looked at the witch in her red eyes with jet black sclerae. Upon looking into her eyes, his fear returned. "Wh.. what you want?"

"It's simple, really. I want you to inform me of Ozpin's secrets and tell me what I want to know when I want to know it."

The lion tailed faunus looked at the goddess in disgust. "You want me to work for you?" He glared at her. "You may as well for-"

Several Beowolves growled at him. "I wouldn't if I were you. These Grimm are just aching to gobble you up for dinner. The only reason they haven't is because I'm ordering them to stay put. So here's the deal- you work for me until I'm satisfied with your services, or... you refuse and become yet another victim destroyed at the hands of the Grimm." He tried to back away, only for the Grimm behind him to surround him. He was completely encircled, nowhere to go. Any attempt at running would result in him being eaten. "Think about it. Is this really how you want to die?"

 _No... This would be a very bad way to die._ he thought to himself.

"So, what will it be, Leonardo?"

"I.. I'll do it."

"Wise decision." She walked forth to the Beowolf right in front of him and motioned to the Grimm. "Creatures of darkness, away! Disperse!"

The Grimm turned and ran away, and Leonardo anxiously watched as the Grimm went by him. Unsure of what to do from there, he got on his knees and bowed before Salem. "What's the first thing you need me to do, Your Grace?"

"For now, I need you keep me informed on what happens in those meetings with Ozpin. You are the special double agent, and your loyalty lies to me."

"So I'm the only one who's in your service?"

Her expression shifted to a neutral one. "Not quite. So far there is only one full time member." She smiled. "You might have heard of him, actually. Does the name Arthur Watts sound familiar to you?"

"A.. a little bit." he answered.

"He's an Atlesian scientist, dejected and disgraced from the community for controversial innovations and ideas. He's not the only troubled soul out there. I'm sure I'll find others within time. But until then, you'll do just nicely." A strange orb like Grimm came forth. "I'll have a Seer accompany you back to your office so that you may speak to me as needed. We'll be in touch."

She disappeared into the shadows, leaving the headmaster of Haven with the Grimm. He silently and dreadfully made his way back to Mistral.

 _Oh boy... What have I done?_ he thought to himself.

A knock on his door was heard, ending the flashback. As he came to reality, he walked to the door and opened it. Much to his shock, it was the first of Salem's henchmen. "Oh, hello, Mr. Watts." he quickly stammered out.

Watts gave him a glare. "That's _Dr._ Watts to you. I didn't get those doctorates for nothing!"

He bowed his head meekly. "Apologies, Dr." He looked back up at his ally. "Can I get you anything? Water? Coffee? Tea?"

"Do you have any black tea?"

"You're in luck. I still have lots of it from when Ozpin gave me that tea set. I'll get that ready for you right away."

He sped off, leaving the office. As he rapidly walked down the hall to fetch the tea, he thought to himself, _I never should have agreed to her terms. At this rate, I'll be in her subservience for eternity... Why was I such a coward?_ _Oh wait._ He stopped and then resumed his pace, much slower. _I'm_ still _a coward._

* * *

All the while on Patch, Tyrian walked through the woods. Wearing a brown coat zipped up to keep himself warm, he tried to gather his thoughts as he carried out his task.

 _My lady asked me to bring Ruby Rose to her. Perhaps maybe I can trick her, pretend to be nice to her and she'll willingly deliver herself to the Queen. And if that fails, I'll subdue her, bind her and bring her to my lady. Come on, the Xiao-Long Rose home should be here somewhere..._

The scorpion tailed faunus saw something out of the corner out of his eye.

 _There it is._

He came across a two-story log cabin with a sheet metal roof in dull red.

 _Alright, this should be easy enough. Her room is probably on the second floor. But I can't just barge in. Who knows what dangers lurk here? There's almost certainly other family members, who are likely armed and trained in combat. Oh, what am I thinking? Whatever's in there, I can take it._

Making sure he wasn't being watched, he opened the door and walked into the living room. Immediately upon entering the room, a dark grey dog noticed him and started growling. He also observed a blonde haired, purple eyed girl in her pajamas who was missing her right arm watching TV.

"Zwei, what's wrong?" a female voice asked. He started barking and glaring at the intruder. She gasped and stood up, shaking in terror. "Who... who are you?!"

The intruder glared at her, giving a frown. "You're not Ruby Rose!"

Yang began backing away from him, still shaking but her look of horror intensified as she asked, "What do you want with her?"

Tyrian smirked. "I'm afraid that isn't your concern." He felt something biting him in his left leg. "Ow!" He tried shaking the dog off. "Stop it, you mangy mutt!"

Using Zwei's attack as an opportunity to escape, Yang ran up the stairs to the spare room she had been using and quickly reached for her scroll on the nightstand. She dialed up Taiyang's number and Qrow's number as well. The first ring came. "Come on..." Then the second. "Answer me, please."

She heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs as the ringtone rang a third time. "Oh come on. Come out and play... I won't bite..." the malicious voice spoke tauntingly. "Even if your dog will!"

The dog was heard barking, but Yang had no idea what Tyrian had done to him. She hid herself under the bed, waiting for someone to answer. Unfortunately both her father and Qrow went to voicemail. "Dad, Qrow, if you're listening, I really need your help. There's a madman in the house. He seems to be asking about..." She felt something grab her, and she screamed as she was dragged out from under the bed, dropping her scroll under it.

Tyrian held her upside down by her right leg. As he hung the damsel, it was evident that Zwei no longer had his teeth in his leg. He smirked as he looked at the defenseless woman. "I win." He threw her against the wall and her head spun before she painfully landed on the floor. He grabbed her wrist and forcefully shoved her against the wall. "Where is she?!"

Still being defiant, she angrily asked, "What do you want with my sister?!"

"To put it simply, I was asked to bring her in. Now, tell me where she is..." He squeezed her wrist painfully. "and nobody gets hurt..."

Yang wanted to shove him off her, but he was too strong, especially with most of her right arm missing. Upon looking into his eyes, she could see madness reflected in them.

 _What does he want with her?! I don't know, but it can't be good!_

Still shaking scared, she glared at him angrily and answered, "Never."

He chuckled madly. "I was hoping you'd say that..." He took her remaining arm and twisted it in pain, causing her to scream in agony. "This is going to be _so_ much fun."

Letting her hit the floor, she looked up at him with a mixture of fear and anger. "Who... who are you?!"

Tyrian continued to laugh madly before answering, "I am your worst nightmare."

His mad laughter was heard as the screen faded to the black.


	59. There's Nobody Praying for Me

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys and girls! Guess who got done with this chapter early? I did! Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Yang Xiao-Long had been in many bad situations in her life- going face to face against Grimm, against White Fang members, and even against a silent yet deadly ice cream colored girl. None of these were as bad as the situation she was in now. And she never could have foreseen this- her ankles tied to the legs of a chair, her left and only arm remaining tied to the back of the chair with rope, and said rope wrapped around her chest to further bind her.

Her captor had taken off his coat and brought forth his scorpion tail for the prisoner to see. Zwei was heard pounding his head against the door trying to break it down. Said door was also being blocked by the nightstand that once had a vase of flowers on it. The vase had been thrown against the wall, smashing it and leaving a mess of soil and flowers on the ground.

"Now that's been taken care off, we're going to play a little game. I call it 'Interrogation.' I ask a question, and you must answer it honestly. If you refuse to speak or lie to me, these stingers will slash at you each time you do so." He showed her the folding blades resembling pincers attached to his arm bracers. "Lie or refuse to speak too many times, and the real stinger will be used instead. Let's begin, shall we?"

 _Oh no..._ Yang thought.

"Where is your sister, Ruby Rose?" Tyrian began.

 _I have to stall for time. I can't let him figure out where Ruby is. I just hope dad gets back, and soon..._

"Not talking? Do I have to make you speak?" Yang stayed silent. "Very well then." He took his arm, and with the blades attached to the bracer, slashed at her remaining arm. She screamed out in pain. "Now, let's try this again. Where is Ruby Rose?"

"I don't know." Yang lied.

"You lie!" He slashed at her again, and she screamed louder. "Surely she had to told you before leaving, right?"

The captive answered truthfully, "She never said a word."

"You're lying." He slashed at her again and looked at her arm as she screamed, grinning madly. But he noticed that there was no blood or mark on her arm, much to his frustration. "How are you not bleeding?! Oh." He frowned in realization. "You have an active aura."

"You're damn right, and you'll never break through it!"

"Oh, I'll get through it eventually. Everyone runs out of aura sooner or later. You may be able to prevent damage, but you can't prevent pain." He chuckled. "I wonder how many hits it will take for your aura to break. Now then, let's continue. When did she leave the home?"

Yang glared at him, proclaiming, "You'll never find her. She left weeks ago!"

Albeit a lie, he seemed satisfied with her answer, as he did not injure her that time. "How many?"

"Ten." It had been ten days. She hoped her lie would discourage him from hunting her sister. "She could be anywhere by now."

He laughed for about ten seconds and grinned. "You underestimate my tracking skills."

The former brawler's eyes turned red for the first time in months. "Leave her alone, you madman! She doesn't have anything you want!"

He gave her a mad laugh. "You don't know that."

As his mad laughter continued, her eyes turned back to lilac as she tensed in fear. The sound of Zwei trying to pound against the door were no longer heard, but he was heard whimpering as Yang looked at Tyrian with a highly worried look on her face.

She silently pleaded, _Come on... Dad, Qrow, somebody... Hurry!_

"Now then, back to business." He held his blade close to her stomach. "Where did Ruby run off to?"

"She never _said_ anything!" Yang said, hoping he'd take it literally.

Instead of slashing her, he stopped to think for a moment. "Did she never actually say anything? Or did she _write_ something about her status?" Yang gasped. The frozen look of terror on her face told him that he was right. Tyrian smirked, not even caring about the fact that Zwei started barking. "She did write something about where she was going, didn't she?"

"No." she lied. He slashed at her stomach, and she screamed even louder. "Okay, yes. But you'll never find it."

"Maybe I don't have to. Just tell me where it is." Yang was silent. "Not talking. Do I need to remind you of the consequences of being silent?"

"Wait!" Yang pleaded. He stopped, only inches before her arm. "It's in first drawer of the nightstand!"

He opened the drawer that was blocking the door and searched for something indicating where Ruby was going. The only thing he found was the remaining piece of Ember Celica. "You liar!" He slowly struck at Yang's leg with one of the Queen's Servants, her agonizing screams music to his ears. "Where is it really?!"

"Under the rug!" He lifted the large white circular rug, but found nothing. He slashed at her other leg, and her screams were even louder. "Under the pillows!" He looked under the pillows, even taking them out of their pillowcases and shaking them to try and find the letter. Upon find nothing, he slashed at her slowly and her aura began to flicker in yellow light.

"My patience is wearing thin, Blondie. It looks like your aura's about to run out as well. So, let's make this easier for both of us." He held the blade over by the left side of her chest, close to her heart. He slowly crept closer, little by little as he asked, "Where is the letter on Ruby's location?"

"Second drawer of the nightstand! Should be the first thing you see!"

He followed her instruction and sure enough, he found the letter. He began reading silently to himself. "Mistral... Perfect."

 _Ruby, forgive me. I've failed you..._

"Yang? Where are you?!" a familiar voice called out. Her father had finally arrived home. "Yang?!" Zwei barked even louder. Using one hand, Tyrian covered her mouth before quickly taking one of the pillowcases and tying it around her mouth.

He put on his jacket and wrapped his tail around his waist to conceal it. "Thanks for the tip, by the way."

Tyrian pocketed the letter, deactivated his blades and conked the captive on the head with the right bracer, knocking her unconscious. He then jumped out the window, leaving Yang stuck there. Taiyang kicked down the door and found Yang unconscious. "Yang!" He quickly undid the ropes around her, catching her before she could fall face-first onto the face. "Oh no..."

Zwei whimpered sadly. The scene showed Taiyang making something on the stove as Yang was shown sleeping on the couch with a white pillow and blanket. Zwei looked at her worriedly. Yang's dad sighed.

Qrow came in without even knocking. "I came as soon I could. Is Yang okay?"

"She's alive. I found her unconsciousness but breathing. However, she was also tied up to a chair and the window in the guest quarters has been broken. Someone broke in." Taiyang sighed. "Now more than ever I wish Summer was here..."

"If she was here, she would have beaten him into next week. Maybe even the week after." Qrow lamented before taking a drink from his flask.

"First Ruby disappears, and now this... Oh gods..."

He choked on his liquor. "Wait, what?! Ruby's gone?!"

"Did you not get my voicemail? That's why I wanted you to come as soon as possible."

Qrow nodded. "I've been running around in various places for weeks. I knew it was there, but I never got around to checking it. I'm really sorry, Tai. Ruby could be hurt and it's all my fault."

"Unfortunately, it's been ten days since Ruby left." He got out some tea cups. "Trying to find her and her friends now might be like trying to find needles in a haystack."

"This is bad... Yang hurt even further, Ruby and company who knows where, and you needing a lot of help. No matter what I do, it's never enough..." Qrow drank some more before looking at his container. "Fuck. My flask is empty. I ran out of Merlot." He looked at his best friend with a mixture of curiosity and somberness. "You got any vodka?"

Tai gave an exasperated sigh. "Qrow, please. Yang's unconscious, Ruby and team JNPR are who knows where, and not to mention someone broke into the house and attacked Yang for reasons currently unknown."

Qrow slumped back against the wall, sighing again. "What do we do now?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in Kunchinashi, Sienna Khan looked around for Maura's hideout. As she trudged up a mountain, she was seen in her normal attire. She panted aloud and thought to herself, _Damn it. I've searched everywhere, but I've gotten nowhere. I've been here for the last few days, but still nothing. There's only one area I haven't looked..._

The High Leader approached the cottage at the top of the mountain. She looked through the windows, but didn't find anything. Sighing, she turned away, only to stop upon hearing the door creak. She turned around as the door creaked open, and found Maura Celandine standing there with her hand to door.

"Sienna?" Maura asked.

Sienna ran back to the door and hugged her best friend, and the snake scaled faunus returned the gesture. "I'm so glad to see you." The Mistralian leader looked at the high leader. "Please, come in." The two women ended the cottage, with Maura closing the door behind her. They made their way to the living room, which had a green couch and a few wooden chairs along with a wooden table. "It seems you found the note after all."

The White Fang leader looked confused. "Note? What note?"

"I'm guessing that's a no." Sienna nodded in the negative. "Oh boy... I can only hope that no one reads that note I left behind... and that they don't know how to unscramble words."

"Then perhaps you should leave this place." the tiger eared faunus suggested.

Maura sat down on the couch. "I have thought of going to Atlas and staying with my older sister and her family, but that would leave Mistral's White Fang branch without a leader."

"Or Athena Bruna would take your place." Sienna theorized. "Also, who is Athena, and why is she after you?"

She sighed heavily. "To be honest, I think she's only targeting me because I'm the leader of Mistral's White Fang Branch. Athena was my lieutenant. I don't know when or why she joined the White Fang, but she had been my lieutenant for over a month prior to the Storming of Sanctum. For reasons unknown to me, she wanted to use my forces to attack Sanctum Academy without any warning to me. When she falsely declared in broad daylight that she was going to attack Signal Academy in three days, I figured out her true plan and tried to get her to stop her attack, but she refused to listen. I tried to stop her by threatening to fire her as lieutenant, which needless to say, failed miserably. After her attack and arrest at Sanctum, the hunt for my head began. Eventually, as more and more people started to join Athena's side, I began to grow fearful that her followers would find me and turn me into the authorities. Consumed by fear, I fled here to Kunchinashi."

Sienna looked at Maura curiously. "Do you know what has happened since you have fled here?"

"Unfortunately, I do. Athena has not only escaped, but she's also destroyed Argus Harbor Prison with the aid of her followers. They even had someone impersonate me to further incriminate me."

The tigress looked horribly distressed upon hearing Maura's answer. "Oh dear. I didn't even hear about the prison's destruction." She groaned. "This is much worse than I thought. We're stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you leave Mistral, Athena will still target whoever I can find and convince to be your successor. If you don't leave, you'll likely be caught, either by the Revolutionists, one or more huntsmen or huntresses, and/or the Mistralian authorities. You'd be brought to the big house, trialed and no doubt executed for not being able to prove your innocence. Either way, Athena wins and takes over Mistral's White Fang branch. And we still don't know what she's really up to..."

Maura looked at her best friend grimly. "Do you think that you'd be able to stop Athena if she were to take my place?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to find out. Yet at the same time, I don't want to put your life in jeopardy." She put her index finger and thumb to her chin, trying to think of a solution. "How has it all come down to this?"

"I don't know, and I fear that there's no way out of this. The only way to stop Athena and win this civil war is to prove my innocence. But the only evidence I have is oral, nothing physical or solid."

Suddenly Sienna's eyes lit up. "Maybe there is." She looked at the snake scaled woman. "You once told me that you had a diary, didn't you?"

"I did. What about it?"

"Do you still have it and do you still write in it?"

"Yes and yes. Should I go get it?"

"That would be helpful."

Maura got up from the couch and left the living room. A few minutes later, she returned holding a black and green covered diary in her hands. "Here you go."

"Hmm..." Sienna took the diary and flipped through the pages. "Sanctum Academy was attacked on September 13th, before the Vytal Festival was crashed with the Fall of Beacon. Should be here somewhere..." She stopped flipped and read the pages. "Ah-ha! You wrote a diary entry for that day, confiding in it your fears about Athena's plan. If we present this to the Mistralian council, they'll see that you're innocent and they'll have to stop the hunt."

"It's a bit of a long shot, but it just might work. Although, could you be the one to present it, before I enter the courtroom?"

"Of course. Also, we have an advantage by having me testify for you- since I'm the head of the White Fang, they know that you take orders from me. They should believe me. Once I can convince them that you're truly innocent, we may be able to convince the Loyalists of the Fang and the Mistralian authorities to work together to stop Athena and her dangerous agenda, once and for all."

"This is highly risky." Maura looked at Sienna sadly, having second thoughts. "I can't ask you to do this. If this fails, we could both end up executed."

"I'm aware of that, but I am more than willing to do this."

Maura blinked sadly. "You're risking your neck to aid me. I can't believe you're doing this just to protect the White Fang from corruption from within."

"I'm not just doing this for the Fang, Maura." She put her hand on Maura's shoulder. "I'm doing it for you." She gave Maura another hug. "You're my best friend. I don't want anything to happen to you." As the snake woman returned the embrace, there was silence for a few moments. After these moments asked, the two split apart and Sienna stood with an angry determined look. "And I'll be damned if you die for Athena's treacherous actions. It seems there's too many extremist traitors in the Fang. First Adam Taurus and now this? This internal corruption must stop, here and now."

"I... I can't thank you enough for this."

"You're welcome. It's no trouble." Sienna looked around the cottage. "How soon do you think you can pack your bags?"

"Do you think we can leave tomorrow morning, before the sun rises?"

"That we can do. In the meantime, we can discuss the plan over dinner." She looked around. "You do have food right?"

"I do. I have my messenger acquire food and ingredients to make things with." A timer went off. "I hope you like lasagna, cause that's what's cooking."

"I haven't had it in a long time." Maura put on some mittens and took a large casserole dish out of the oven. "Not since I moved out of my parents house, but I remember it being delicious." She smiled as her friend put the food on the table. "Also, you're a good cook. How could it be bad?" Maura smiled as she heard that. Sienna stood up. "You would you like something to drink?"

Maura answered, "Some water would be nice."

Sienna filled two glasses with water from the sink and brought them to the table. She set one before Maura and raised her own glass into the air. "I propose a toast- to success of the loyalists, securing your hold as Mistralian White Fang leader and defeating Athena."

"To success." Maura spoke.

The two clinked glasses and drank their water.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Atlas, Whitley stood in front of a building in the lower part of Atlas city. It was a beige three story building with over 100 rooms for rent and nearly 150 residents living there under this roof. Strangely enough there were windows or porches on the second or third floor, but there were doors leading to the outside world on the first floor. "There it is. The Courtyard Apartment complex." Whitley and his bodyguard went into the building, entering a lobby with a male receptionist at the desk sleeping on the job. "Alright. From what I've been told, the room I'm looking for is on the third floor. You wait here and I'll be back in no time. I'll be sure to call if there are any problems."

The bodyguard remained silent, but nodded in understanding as Whitley ascended the white carpeted stairs to the third floor. As he entered the hallway and walked through the halls, he looked at the room numbers to his left.

 _301, 303, 311..._

And to his right.

 _300, 308, 310, 320..._

"Iris's room should be here..." He eventually found a small sign next to the door; room 337. "There it is."

He breathed in and knocked on the door, only for it to creek open a little. He pushed open the door and walked into the room. As the Schnee entered the room, he saw blue painted walls, and the left and right sides of them were slowly chipping away. The room was carpeted with blue fabric and had a white ceiling with three light bulb sockets on the ceiling, each spread a few feet apart. Most of the floor space was mostly taken up by paint cans, tubes, canvases, easels and a few boxes stacked and arranged to form a cross pattern that could be used as a walkway.

"Hello?" He looked around. "Miss Khloris?" He waited a few seconds, but there was no response. "Are you here?"

The youngest Schnee continued to explore the apartment. On the upper right square of the cross was a wooden stool with a dark painted canvas on an easel. To the left of the cross was a small kitchen, which Whitley noticed had dishes drying in the dish rack and dishes in the sink waiting to be washed. On right side of the cross was a rectangular wall mirror on top of a sink area with two different sinks. On the left most sink, he saw a few paintbrushes dipped into a red cup of water. To the left and right of the sinks were two different doors, one of which lead to a bathroom and the other one he was uncertain of, likely a closet.

In front of him at the top of the cross was a large beige carpet. He went to the carpet, and upon further examination, believed it to be small living room of sorts. On his right he saw a wooden chair and a small square table, likely where the owner ate her meals. A few feet away from him on his left, Whitley saw a big green couch with two arms and towards the end of the arm farther away from him was a large pillow in a blue pillowcase. He inspected the couch further and saw a green sheet and a rainbow colored blanket partially tucked into it.

 _She sleeps on her couch? Who does that?_

The sound of a door opening disrupted his thoughts. A woman entered the doorway, turning her attention to Whitley. The first thing he noticed was that her blond hair was loose and unkempt. She was dressed in a wrinkled magenta turtleneck with red blots of paint on the upper part of her right arm. She wore jeans that had light blue paint stains on the left leg close to the knee and on the right side near her pocket. She wore worn out orange tennis shoes with black soles and lime green laces, which were in need of replacement not only because they were worn out, but all the aglets were missing as well.

"Damn it. I forgot to shut the door again." She looked at him with her green eyes. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I am Whitley Schnee. Are you Iris Khloris?"

She folded her arms, nodding in response. "That would be me. If you know my name, you must have some reason for pestering me. Have you come here to insult me?

"No, quite the opposite actually. I need your help. I need you make a painting for the Schnee Charity Concert Art Auction."

Her eyes turned grey. "A painting? For the SDC Charity Art Auction?" Whitley nodded quickly. "Alright, what do you need?"

The teenage boy got out the purple post-it note he wrote a few days ago and gave it to Iris. She read over it.

"Alright list of requirements- first one is the canvas size, subject matter, additional note... _'Any color but red'_?

"That's for the background. A red background would too easily blend in with subject matter. You might want to use a green or blue background to contrast the colors, but that decision is up to you."

Iris nodded. "Ah, I see. And when is this charity concert?"

"It is on February 5th, starting at nineteen hundred. However, all finished artworks must be submitted twenty four hours prior to the start of the concert."

Her eyes turned purple as she raised her eyebrows in alarm. "Oh boy. Less than a month either way. Such a big task..."

 _January 7th to February 4th. Twenty eight days to do the impossible..._ she thought to herself.

Whitley looked at her with hints of sad sincerity. "If it's too much in such little time, I understand."

She clinched her fists. "I'll do it!"

"Really?" Whitley smiled as Iris nodded. "Thank you!"

Her eyes turned grey. "However, since you're asking me to work within a short window of time, I don't want my time to invested in something that I may not get to finish. Therefore, I have to charge you a fee for my limited time."

He bit his tongue to prevent a sigh from escaping his mouth. "How much do you want?"

"A thousand Lien."

"Oh boy..." Whitley got out his wallet and quickly counted his money. "I don't think I have 1,000 Lien on me."

"How much do you have?"

"About 130... Hmm..." He mused to himself. "I'll make you a deal. I'll give you one hundred lien now and then give you the rest of your payment when you bring your completed work to me."

"Deal." She shook his hand to seal the deal. "Can you write down your phone number and address for me?"

"Certainly. You have a pen and post it note?"

"Right here." She handed the materials to him and he wrote down his address and phone number. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I don't wish to keep you from starting your task, so I will leave you to it. If there's anything you need, let me know."

"That I can do. Have a good day."

Whitley left the painter to begin her work. Alone in her apartment, Iris looked for a large canvas, 48 by 60 inches to be precise. She found the right size canvas, placed the old painting aside and put the new canvas on. As she placed the old canvas against the wall near the upper right corner of her room, she began to think to herself.

 _Alright. 48 x 60. That's 2,880 square inches to paint. At five Lien for each square inch, that's 14,400 Lien minimum my finished work could sell for at the auction. It would be more than enough..._

She sighed and spoke to herself, "I'm a whisper lost upon wind, a lone ember to burn down those who doubt me, a wave to drown them."

The painter went into the closet, turning on the lights and knelt down to a chest trunk and pulled out a photo of herself, an older woman, an older man, and two men each a few years older, one older by three and one by six. Her eyes turned red. "Family is supposed to always be there for you, but nearly all of them have tried to tear me down and what did father do? He just let it happen." She put the photo down. "But that doesn't matter. This is the opportunity I've been waiting for. I'll finally show them all that I am capable." Leaving the closet, she turned off the lights and stood determined before taking a paintbrush. "I'm the lizard with a poison tongue, the bullet in a loaded gun. I'm alone and always will be. There's nobody praying for me."


	60. Give Me a Sign

Give Me a Sign/I Can Feel You Falling Away

* * *

James Ironwood was in his office at Atlas Academy. Although the school year had yet to begin, he had been spending a lot of time here. The camera showed a blue carpeted floor with various golden designs on it, navy blue walls and snow blue ceiling. His desk was a black steel desk with two compartments on the right side. In front of his desk were five wooden chairs with blue velvet and arms with blue cushioning. Behind his desk was a black office chair and a picture of Atlas's symbol on the wall. On that same wall were two different windows, both of which were covered with blue curtains. There were also two filing cabinets placed side by side in the upper left corner.

As he stood at the wall of windows behind his desk, he brought his hands in front of him and clinched them into fists. As he did this, both of his hands had white gloves covering them. The camera leaned slightly upwards, showing that his hair was slightly messier than usual. He sighed aloud to empty air before the door opened.

A middle aged woman with grey eyes and black hair in a top bun entered the room, shutting the door as he made his way back to the desk. She wore a long sleeved black button up shirt. Some of the buttons were undone, creating a modest v-neck. Her knee length white skirt was paired with black pants and black combat boots. To complete the look, she wore a white belt with a few pouches tied to it and a sheath for her sword on her left side.

"You have requested my presence, General?"

"I have. I need you to do me a huge favor. First, I need you to go to this address and deliver this message." She looked at the address written out on the envelope he gave her. _Xiao-Long/Rose Family Home, Patch, 7513 Thunder Road_. "Once that is done, do not leave immediately. Ask Taiyang Xiao-Long to measure the length of Yang's left arm so that I can properly create or find a prosthetic arm to replace the right one that she lost." He gave her a writing pad with a pen attached to it. "Record the information and return back here with your findings. Can I count on you?"

She smiled. "It would be an honor, General Ironwood."

"Excellent. I almost thought you wouldn't except the mission."

The huntress gave him a confused look. "Why wouldn't I? Playing messenger has become an important job in the recent months. And not everyone is cut out for it. Second class messengers are dropping like flies. According to a newspaper I read just yesterday, in Atlas kingdom alone, 566 deaths have been reported, along with over a thousand injuries. It is also possible that the other kingdoms and the faunus haven of Menagerie could be higher in numbers. The world doesn't just need messengers; they need capable first class messengers who know what they're doing."

"I see your point. And to answer your question, I thought you wouldn't except it because you still have children back at home."

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? My sons have already graduated."

"But what about the youngest one? Your daughter, I-"

"She is no daughter of mine, General." the woman interrupted. "She is a coward. A selfish, incompetent, cold-blooded coward who can't succeed in anything."

Before Ironwood could respond to her comment, a loud knock on the door was heard three times. "Come in." Ironwood answered.

Emerald Arc walked into the door, now wearing a satchel with an emerald sticker in the center around her left shoulder. She retrieved a letter from the satchel and handed it to General Ironwood. "A letter to the General, from Caroline Cordovin."

He raised his eyebrows in alarm. "Cordovin?" The general grimaced. "Oh dear..."

"I must forewarn you General-" the emotionless messenger began. "you aren't going to like hearing this news. Judging by your expression, you may already know what this is about."

"I'm afraid I do." The first and second class messenger stood to the side as the general opened the envelope and read the letter, both of them reading Ironwood's expression. "Oh good gods..."

"What is it?" the woman asked.

"Argus Harbor Max Security Prison has been destroyed." The huntress gasped and covered her mouth in horror. "Caroline Cordovin was horribly injured. Captain Grey injured. Warden Cumin dead, killed by Athena Bruna... Not many survivors. Thirteen guards remaining... Assistant Warden Paprika horribly injured... Barely surviving..." He groaned, suddenly feeling a wave of fatigue wash over him.

"I know it is a lot to take in." Emerald said to him.

"Oh dear..." the woman stated. "That's not good at all."

"It isn't. Oh, Mrs. Khloris, I nearly forgot." He handed her five hundred Lien. "The first part of your payment. You will receive the remaining half once you return here after completing the task."

She smiled. "Thank you, General." The huntress turned to Emerald, looking at her. "You're a second class messenger, aren't you?"

"I am." She paused briefly. "What about it?"

Mrs. Khloris raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure you're cut out for this task?"

"I'm positive that I can do this. Don't underestimate a second class messenger."

The huntress was perplexed at her seemingly high confidence. "Are you not even scared? You're doing of the most dangerous jobs on the planet and you are ill-prepared for it."

"I'm not scared, because I know the risks I'm taking and have prepared for them to the best of my ability. The Grimm will not get to me." She turned to the general. "Now, if that is all, I will take my leave. Have a good day, General."

Unsure of how to respond, he just watched as she exited the room. _She's a strange one._ Ironwood thought to himself. _And why is she emotionless? Is it all an act or...? No, Ironwood, that's absurd._

He looked at the letter again, sighing heavily.

"She's dead." Mrs. Khloris said.

"Oh, don't count her out yet, Emily. Some second class messengers are resilient. I got a feeling that she'll be around for quite while. She seems to control her emotions very well. Almost too well..."

 _I wish I had her ability to remain calm under pressure..._ Ironwood secretly thought.

Emily scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "She's a strange one. But who really knows what will happen?" She looked at the address on the envelope. "Nonetheless, I better pack my bags. It's a long way to Patch. See you soon, General."

"Good luck, Mrs. Khloris."

She exited the room and as she went into the hallway, she got out her scroll, checking the date and time.

 _17:00_

 _January 9th_

Emily pocketed her scroll and walked through the hall as the scene transitioned to...

* * *

Ilia and Hector searching the city of Kunchinashi for Maura's messenger. With a credible lead, she was sure that she would find Adam.

"Alright." Ilia began. "According to the note I found, Maura's messenger should be in the southern part of the city, wearing a White Fang mask with green stripes on it. Let's split up and cover more territory; I'll take the west, you take the east. If you find her and discover Maura's location, call me and tell me where to meet you. Same thing if you find Adam."

Hector gave her a thumbs up. "You got it, boss."

As the two faunus split up to cover more ground quicker, Ilia found herself in a part of the city with many stores nearby. As she walked by an ice cream shop, she saw numerous people sitting at outdoor tables, many of which were in pairs. The groups consisted of two female pairs, one male pair, and four different male-female pairs. One of the two female pairs was laughing and giggling, and the other one had both girls staring into each others eyes lovingly.

 _Couples all having fun. Why couldn't me and Blake be like that? Then again, that desire is a foolish one, Ilia. She was never interested in you to begin with. Not romantically anyway. I was always jealous of her relationship with Adam. Ah!_ She mentally chided herself. _Come on, Ilia, focus! You're here to find and aid Adam Taurus, not be tormented by ghosts of the past._

She looked at the couples, eating ice cream and other sweet treats. In the very back however, two cloaked figures, a slender one in black and a white one that was bulkier speaking with a black haired, black eyed woman at a table. The woman wore a long sleeveless black robe reaching to the floor with a sweetheart neckline, along with a silver heart onyx necklace where the black heart was encased in a silver heart shape. She also wore circle-shaped onyx earrings and black opera length gloves.

Not even paying attention to them, Ilia sighed, sadly turning away as her skin turned green. Her eyes became bright blue and her hair and spots turned dark blue. No one noticed the tormented lesbian as she walked to the wall on the next nearest street, slumped her back against it and sighed. But she heard another voice with hers. She turned her head and turned to see a masked man's face right by her.

"Adam?" she asked.

"Ilia?" he asked her at the same time. She blinked silently and asked her, "What are you doing here?"

Her color palette turned back to normal. "I was sent to find you by Fennec and Corsac. If I may ask, what brings you here?"

"I've been trying to find Maura Celandine so that she can aid me with my plan, but so far, it feels like I'm on a wild goose chase."

"Well you're in luck." She smiled, getting out her scroll. "Check this out."

She showed him the note Maura left behind. "Hmm. A messenger with green stripes on her Grimm mask. Where are we going to find a messenger like that?"

Ilia's scroll started to ring and she looked at the caller ID, smiling. "I think we might have a lead." She pressed answer. "Hello?"

"Ilia, I found Maura's messenger." Hector's voice answered. "She's over by Bullet Square. Get over here a-sap!"

"We'll be right over." She hung up and pocketed her scroll. "To Bullet Square!"

The two faunus darted to the nearest back alley and ran through alleyway to deserted street to another alleyway until they arrived at their location. Sitting on a bench were Hector was standing was a woman with long black hair tied back, a long green dress with black tights and a green ribbon around her right wrist. As foretold, she indeed had a White Fang mask with green stripes on them.

Ilia and Adam approached the woman. She gave them both a puzzled expression. "You're not Sienna Khan."

"Maura's messenger, I presume?" Ilia asked.

"Indeed." The messenger stood up and bowed as she introduced herself. "I am Daphne, messenger of Maura Celandine. Are you three Loyalists or Revolutionists?"

Hector raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh?"

The chameleon faunus scratched her head in confusion. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"I know what she means. She's asking if we're allied with Maura or her rival Athena. Maura leads the Loyalists while Athena leads the Revolutionists. There's been a civil war for power brewing between the two factions for who controls the Mistralian White Fang branch." Adam answered Ilia. He turned back to Daphne. "And to answer your question, neither. We're not from here."

The messenger looked at him suspiciously. "So why do you seek out Maura?"

"I wish to speak with her, peacefully." Adam stated half-truthfully.

Daphne studied his expression carefully, taking off her mask looking at him with her bright green eyes. As she did this, the Valeian leader showed no signs of uneasiness. She sighed and put her mask back on. "Alright. I will lead you to her, but I'm watching your every move, out-lander."

Adam was not intimated in the least as the scene transitioned to him, Hector, Ilia and Daphne walking up the mountain to a small cottage.

"This is where she lives. Now to get in, you'll have to know the secret knock to acknowledge that I trust you. But since I'm here, I'll just do it for you." She went up the door and knocked hard on it three times, tapped it thrice, knocked hard twice and tapped it two more times. The door creaked open. "Hello? Ms. Celandine?" She entered the house and the others followed her lead. "You have visitors." Silence reigned. "Maura?"

They were shown searching the living room, with the four White Fang agents seeing nothing in the living room. Daphne walked away to check the bedroom. The other three agents walked to the kitchen. Hector opened the fridge and freezer, but there was nothing in there. As Adam looked at the wooden table, he saw not just one, but two circle marks, one on each end, on the table where glasses of water or some other beverage had been.

"I don't get it. Where is she?" Ilia asked.

Upon this, Daphne returned back to the kitchen. "She's gone!"

"What?!" Adam exclaimed. "But why would she just leave like this?"

"She probably left so that if a Revolutionist found her note, she wouldn't be discovered and turned into the authorities. The price on her head is super high and everyone, from civilians to soldiers and huntsmen and huntresses are joining the hunt to turn her in."

"So that's why her note said 'for Sienna Khan's eyes only...'" Ilia mumbled to herself.

"Great. Just great." Adam sarcastically remarked. "Now my job has been made a lot harder. We have no idea where Maura went or who's with her."

"Are you sure that someone is or was with her?" Ilia asked.

"There had to be." He pointed to the marks on the table. "There's two different glass marks on the wood table. Someone was with her last night. But whom?"

Hector looked at the messenger curiously. "Could that have been you, Daphne?"

"No, not me." she answered. "I haven't been here in two weeks."

Adam sighed. "I just don't get it. Where could she have gone?"

* * *

Several hours earlier, before the sun rose, Sienna and Maura were exiting the cottage with their backpacks on. Donning their cloaks (and masks in the case of Sienna), they cut the lights and shut the door.

"Hopefully, the lack of light will help us to escape easier." Sienna stated. "Let's go."

"Wait." Maura threw her arms around Sienna. "Thank you. I owe you big time."

"Don't thank me yet." She looked into her friend's eyes. "We still have to prove your innocence. Let's move."

And so, the two ran off into the night, the camera showing the moon and the stars.

Back in the present, as the sun set painted the sky with yellow and orange colors, Sienna and Maura moved through the woods. "So what are you going to say to them?" Maura asked her.

"Honestly, I'm not sure." Sienna answered. "I'll need time to prepare a speech. Normally I just let the words come to me, but the stakes are too high to rely on my natural charisma and persuasion. I'll also need time to rehearse before I enter the court hall."

"Perhaps we should stop for an evening meal and you can get started on the speech?"

"That sounds like a good plan. There's not much daylight, so hopefully, I can get finished on the introduction before the sun sets."

The scene transitioned to the two faunus ladies setting up a campsite. A montage began as Sienna sat down on a log, getting out a notebook and pen. The High Leader began to write while Maura gathered some twigs and arranged them so that they would easily burn. She lit a match and dropped it onto the pile of twigs, letting it burn. She got out a metal rack and set up a big pot to hang from it. She started preparing ingredients as Sienna continued to write.

The montage ended after the sun had set and sky turned dark blue. It was a moonless night, but there were a few stars present.

"Well that's about all the daylight left." Sienna said, putting the notebook and pen done. "I got done with the introduction and a little more."

"I'm surprised at you. Working so hard..." She ladled some vegetable soup into a bowl. After putting a spoon into it, she handed it to Sienna.

"Thank you."

She blew on her soup before eating it.

"The walls are really closing in on me..." Maura stated. She put down her down bowl sadly. "Do I really have any chance of surviving the end of the civil war?"

"I'll keep you alive. I won't let you be damned for Athena's actions." Sienna took a small sip of water from her canteen and continued eating.

 _Sienna's words are reassuring, but I'm still scared. I'm starting to break, I'm falling apart. Have I become undone?_ Maura looked up at the few stars that were in the sky. _Is it possible that those stars are already dead, giving off the last light they have? I don't know. But these stars may be my last hope._ She held her hands in prayer. _To the stars above, I ask of you-_ _Give me a sign. A sign that everything will be alright..._

* * *

At that same time, team JNPR and Ruby were walking through Vale. Now far from Cachée, the quintet traveled a long dirt road paved through a forest. Up ahead the road continued in an open area with a fence. On each side of the fence were slight green hills with patches of green grass shattered around them, along with mountains in the distance. On the other side of the road was another forest.

The sun was setting, but it could not be seen with the dark clouds hanging over the land.

"Here we are; the kingdom line." Jaune stated. In front of them was a picket sign reading, _You are now leaving Vale._ "Once we exit this forest, we'll officially be out of Vale's territory and in the outskirts of Vale."

Nora gave him a disgruntled look. "So where we go from there?"

"That, I'm not sure." he timidly answered. "I've rarely traveled to Vale's outskirts."

'Rouge' took her hood down and looked around. There was no one around them, but she still couldn't help but have a bad feeling stir in her gut as a cold chill came over her. Suddenly a vision came to her.

Amber had her arms restrained by a younger Emerald and Mercury. A younger Cinder was shown putting on a glove with a strange symbol and a Grimm bug creature protruded from it.

"Please don't..." she pleaded in a whisper, to no avail.

The raven-haired woman payed no heed to her and started to drain her power, a black substance latching onto the fall maiden's left eye and her right eye glowed a bright orange. As Amber screamed in pain, Cinder smirked as her right eye faintly glowed yellow and orange.

"Pyrrha, are you alright?" Jaune's voice asked.

The vision ended as abruptly as it began. Her friends looked at her in concern.

"I'm fine." She lied. "I was just lost in thought. Now then, shall we continue?"

Not bothering to question her, the quintet continued down the long and lonely road as they stepped into the outskirts of Vale's kingdom. As they went forward, Pyrrha put her hood back up and thought to herself, _It seems that_ _Cinder and her allies took down Amber easily. But how is that possible? Was she inexperienced with her powers? If so, the same can not be said for Cinder. She is very skilled at using the maiden powers. Or the fire aspect if nothing else. Do I really even have a chance against her? I nearly died at her hands. And while I've become weaker, she is getting stronger. I'm falling away, breaking down. Everything...  
_

Part of her wanted to reach for Jaune's hand, but she didn't.

 _Even Jaune can't comfort me now. Nearly everything seems lost..._ _I've come undone..._ _Out of the light of the sun, I hide in the darkness. Is light everlasting? Or does every light flicker out one by one, until nothing but darkness is left?  
_


	61. One Last Hope

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys and gals! Hope you're all enjoying your day. Once again, we have another list of huntsmen and huntresses that are all from Roosterteeth. (Save for Brick Bond and Sterling Aurelio.) Ayress Umbra is also from Roosterteeth.

-Damn, 61 chapters and counting. This certainly breaks the previous record of 60 from Mystery of Madness. Why is it that the more mature my fanfic rating is, the longer it lasts? I'm beginning to wonder if I should have divided this story into acts like Cosmic Fiction did with the Eclipse saga. (By the way, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. I finished the first act and am working on the second one as we speak.) [Also a little late to divide the story now...]

Oh well. On with the show!

* * *

The next day, the sound of Weiss's voice was heard as she continued to practice for the recital. Willow Schnee walked through the halls, her white hair loose and gently swaying as she saw a pale skinned woman enter the mansion. She put her back to the wall as the woman came into view. The woman had black eyes and waist length black hair with a single white streak on her right side tucked behind her ear. She wore a dress with a white modest v-neck top with a long black skirt along with a white belt around her waist where the black skirt started. She completed the outfit with black heels, small diamond earrings and a sliver and silver-sapphire necklace.

Willow observed the scene from afar as the woman went forth to the staircase. Jacques Schnee stood at the top of the stairs, waiting as the woman walked forth to him. "Bianca Delaney, I'm so glad you make it."

Mrs. Delaney smiled. "I wouldn't miss it for the world." She stopped at the head of the stairs, her eyes meeting his. "Do you know how many people would kill to have this opportunity? To perform for you?"

"Quite a lot." He smiled. "But that's because they know I pay well."

"I'm not even in this for the money." she reminded him. "I'm here because I _like_ to perform." She put her left hand to her chest. "Also, it's for a good cause. How could I possibly refuse?"

"Still being the saint I see."

She let her arm down and chuckled slightly. "Oh, I'm no saint, but I would like to believe that I'm closer to being a saint than a sinner. Now then, can we get down to business? I have a few songs to learn."

"Certainly. Right this way."

The two went up the stairs to the right and Willow turned away, sadly lamenting the situation at hand.

 _He didn't have to hire her. If he really wanted to, he could have chosen me. Did he forget that I played piano when I grew up? Or is it just he just wants to silence me?_ She internally sighed. _I never should have trusted him..._

* * *

Sometime later, in the printing press room, programs for the upcoming concert were being printed out to eventually be distributed. Seeing that the room was empty, Whitley entered and looked at the programs the machine was printing out. He took one and made his way back towards his room. Once he got back to his room, he closed the door and looked over the program.

The front page read;

 _The Grand Chateau Concert Hall_

 _presents the Schnee Dust Company Charity Concert_

 _February 5th, 80 AGW_

 _19:00_

 _Opera Hall_

The second page read;

 _Weiss Schnee, vocal and piano  
_

 _Featuring;_

 _Bianca Delaney, piano_

 _Atlas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Liam Elmore_

He skipped to the fifth page, which read;

 ** _The Royal Test_**

 _The Path to Isolation_

 _(Weiss Schnee- Vocal, feat. pianist Bianca Delaney and Atlas Symphony Orchestra)_

 _Mirror Mirror_

 _Part I-Who's the Loneliest of All?_

 _Part II-Can I Stop My Fall?_

 _(Weiss Schnee- Vocal and Piano)_

 _20 minute intermission_

 _It's My Turn_

 _(Weiss Schnee- Vocal and Piano, feat. Atlas Symphony Orchestra)_

 _This Life is Mine_

 _(Weiss Schnee- Vocal, feat. pianist Bianca Delaney and Atlas Symphony Orchestra)_

 _Reception and art auction afterwards to follow_

He smiled to himself and set the program aside.

 _Everything's in place. Time to see how progress is going._

The youngest Schnee looked to his scroll and clicked at the name on top of his list of messages; Iris. He reread the first and so far only text message from her, sent to him on the same day he recruited her only an hour after their first meeting.

 _Hello Mr. Schnee, or should I call you Whitley? Anyway, I found a canvas to use and have started work on the painting. I decided to start on the background right away while I find the other colors for my painting. I've chosen a bright green background for the painting. I'm currently on route to the nearest arts and crafts store for paint while I wait for the background to dry. Hope you're doing well. By the way, where should I bring my work once it's finished?_

Whitley began typing out his response.

 _You can call me Whitley, so as to not confuse me with my father. Glad to hear you've started the painting. I see you took my suggestion for the background. Once you're done with the painting, bring it to the Schnee Manor. The address is 5323 Blizzard Boulevard. It's also on the post-it note I wrote my contact information on._

He hit the send button and put his scroll away.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Vale, the spirit of Ozpin stood in the midst of the courtyard of what was once Beacon Academy. Grimm roamed the area, but despite his grief, they couldn't see him, for no soulless creature could see a spirit. He was thankful that they couldn't see him, but even if they could, they wouldn't have been able to hurt him either way.

 _There have been few cases where I have died in a horrible way at a horrible time. This is the worst death in a long time. One of the worst, if not, the absolute worst way and time to die._ the previous headmaster of Beacon thought to himself.

As he made his way towards the statue that had been destroyed, the voices of his predecessors could be heard.

 _You think you died a painful death? Try being eaten by a Grimm._ one of them said.

 _Eaten by a Grimm? P-lease. That's nowhere near as bad compared to being flash-incinerated. I mean, with Ozpin's death, it's happened precisely four times now. Also, you died trying to protect people from_ her _._ another voice added.

 _But how will we protect people if Ozpin's successor is never found?_ an inquiring voice asked.

 _Guys, please, stop._ Ozpin told them.

He looked at the statue in front of him. The huntsman and huntress had crumbled to pieces, and so did the Beowolf and the rock the duo stood upon.

 _If only there was something I could do... But as a spirit, I'm powerless to help out my living friends and allies at Beacon... or stop Salem. Most humanoid creatures can't even see me._ He sighed. _I know this commonly takes time, but I just wish the universe would hurry up with the succession already._

 _Stop your complaining._ a fourth voice said to him. _I had to wait for two years- two years and three months to be precise- for my successor._

 _You're making it sound like that's a bad thing._ another voice, the other's successor, added.

 _Why don't you just leave this place?_ a drunken voice asked. _There's nothing here for us anyway._

 _Because he'd be wondering among aimlessly, which wouldn't do anyone any good._ the voice of a hermit answered.

 _Guys, stop it. All of you._ Ozpin commanded.

The dead headmaster remembered what happened when one of his predecessors died. Within a certain amount of time, a vision would come to them, telling them where they needed to go in order to find their successor. Several predecessors had commonly waited in the area where they were when they died. Some attended their own funeral. Some watched as their bodies were laid in caskets, the undertaker prepare the dead man for a memorial service, and even be buried or cremated. A small few, like Ozpin, were completely obliterated when they were killed and had no corpse to show.

 _Everything fell apart. My plan may have failed, but maybe I can still get the world back on track. I'll take anyone at this point. Please... give me a sign._

His prayers were answered thereafter. A vision came to him; a large flat plain with mountains in the distance was seen. There were three buildings, the largest building being a barn, although there were at least two other buildings. A water pump was seen not too far from the main barn. A dirt road laid in front of the farmland, with a fence that was in need of repair. The driveway met the road at a junction with another road, creating a crossroads.

 _A farmhand..._ Ozpin thought to himself. _I've been reincarnated as a lot of things, but a farmhand has never been one of them. Blacksmith, doctor, hero, soldier, on rare occasions, royalty even. But a farmhand? Huh. Who would have guessed?_

 _A farmhand. Great. Probably an old geezer who can't help us._ the drunkard's voice added.

 _Like that would be new._ the inquisitor quipped.

 _Shut up!_ the drunkard retaliated.

 _Guys, stop it! All of you! We need to focus!_

As the camera showed motions of walking, as if Ozpin himself was actually there, the view continued to show a ladder leading to a room located at the very top of the barn. The camera zoomed in and the door opened, revealing a room with a sloped ceiling, a large window with a bookcase underneath, a bed with white sheets and a red blanket with a diagonal pattern with corn stalks at each corner of the square, a large storage chest and a large circular rug on the ground. The room was lit by an oil lamp.

Sitting on the bed with a book in his hand, was a young teenage boy of thirteen years with tanned skin, a faint, perpetual blush and freckles on his cheeks. His hair was dark brown and his eyes were hazel, the main iris being forest green, with accents of burnt orange and yellow around the pupils. He wore a dirty and scuffed white shirt that laced across the chest with sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a pocket on the left tricep. Orange suspenders held up his olive pants, which were tucked into worn, brown boots. The pants were patched over the knee, and a quilted cloth hung loosely out of his left pocket. He wore orange gloves, with green straps overlapping across the back of the hand in an X shape, and around the wrist. His neck was wrapped with a torn bandage, but he was not injured. This boy was Oscar Pine. Oscar put the book down, turned to face the camera and exited the room, ending the vision.

 _He's only thirteen years old?_ the inquisitor asked.

 _So we have a farmhand and a child._ the hermit concluded. _He has no combat training, no skills that can help us..._

 _Gods help us. We're doomed._ the drunkard said.

 _I will admit, I don't necessarily like this and I honestly don't understand why he's my successor. But he's our one last hope, so he'll have to do. Now, to make my way to him.  
_

The specter of Ozpin faded away until there was nothing there but Grimm.

* * *

As the weeks went on, a montage of various people began.

Athena and Ares were shown standing in an undisclosed location in Mistral, with an army of twenty one messengers ready, Negra among them. As the messengers bowed, Negra also bowed in reverence to her lady, and looked up with a proud smile. Athena smirked and Ares did as well.

On that same day, Sun was shown with his brown cloak hood-down, holding a sack in his right hand as he returned to the cargo hold. He sat next to Blake who was reading. She closed the book and set it aside as he got out his findings; fresh fruit, including bananas, vegetables, bread, and cooked meats in plastic wrapped bowls. While most of the bowls were white, one was blue. He handed a blue one to Blake and she smiled upon seeing the pan-seared tuna in the bowl. She removed the plastic wrap and began eating it with her fingers.

The scene switched to Bianca Delaney in the piano rehearsal room with Weiss. The pianist was playing the piano part to the first song in Weiss's concert repertoire. As she sang, Bianca smiled politely as her fingers hit the keys, and as the piano sound continued, Qrow was shown in his bird form, flying over Fiti and heading out to fly over the sea. As the camera zoomed in on his wing, it glided over the screen as the scene switched to Maura standing in curiosity as she watched Sienna write.

The days 1-13 were crossed out on a calendar on the wall. Emily was shown standing around as Taiyang measured his daughter's left arm. Yang held her head in sorrow as the huntress watched on sadly, unsure what to say.

On that same day, Iris was shown painting her masterpiece with a red tipped paintbrush, her eyes grey as she pulled her hand back and contemplated her next brush stroke. As she moved down to the lower part of the painting, painting part of it red, she smiled and her eyes turned yellow.

The date was shown as January 16th, and Watts stood in the train station of Argus with a list of huntsmen and huntresses who lived here. Like the list in Mistral, this one also had notes in parentheses attached to many of the names.

 _Altham, Ivy_

 _Aurelio, Sterling (Comatose as of September 13th (due to the Storming of Sanctum), contact Salem for further instruction)_

 _Bashir, Maza (member of team CUBB (Cubeb), hunting down Maura Celandine with teammates)_

 _Bond, Brick (moved to Vale)_

 _Castillo, Aurora_ _(Inactive for two years)_

 _Fiorenza, Shani_

 _Hawthorne, Lucero (Already dead)_

 _Hughes, Daisy_ _(hunting down Maura Celandine)_

 _Lucero, Flann (hunting down Maura)_

 _Raine, Boyd (Already dead, was hunting down Maura)_

 _Rivera, Star_

Watts mused to himself. _Hmm. Five targets known to be in the city. Six, counting Aurelio. Hmm. Let's go to the top of the list. Ivy Altham, you may not know it, but today is your last day._

The scene switched to him standing in an apartment dueling a huntress with green and blue hair, pale skin and two different colored eyes; her left eye was blue and her right eye was forest green. She wore an ocean blue tube top with long ivy green jeans and sea green pumps. She held a metal whip with small blade on the tip and a green handle in her right hand.

As she swung her whip at him, Watts swiftly dodged every rapid move she made, each swing. As she swung towards the window, glass broke into shards and flew towards the scientist. He ducked down on his knees and leaned back to avoid glass hit his face. Quickly getting up, he sprung himself up onto the couch. From there, he dodged Ivy's whip and then grabbed it at the edge before the blade. With his left hand, he embedded the blade so deep into the piece of furniture that she couldn't easily get it out, no matter how hard she tried. With the right, he got out the overpowered taser and used the whip to conduct the electricity straight to her. She didn't realize what was happened until it was too late. Like all his other victims, Ivy was shocked and killed from the high voltage. She dropped to the ground, letting go of her whip.

He crossed out Ivy Altham. He was later shown crossing out Shani Fiorenza before pocketing the list and running away with a smirk on his face.

 _This is too easy._ Watts thought to himself.

As the montage continued, a group of four women walked through the forest.

The first one was a woman with pale skin, chocolate brown eyes and long brown hair that flowed to her waist. She wore a green shirt with sleeves folded to the elbow, the inner parts being white along with a light pink knee length skirt with blue flowers on it. She wore a red threaded bracelet with a silver flower charm on it on her right wrist paired with purple pumps. This was Carmina Griffin, the leader of team CUBB (Cubeb).

The second member was a woman with very pale skin, black makeup around her purple eyes and black lipstick. She had her long black hair in a ponytail held back by purple scrunchie. She wore a black strapless dress that reached to her knees, with a visible bat tattoo above her chest. On her hands she wore red elbow length gloves and on the right wrist was a silver cuff bracelet with black diamond spheres on each end. She wore fishnet stockings and knee high black boots to complete the look. This was Ayress Umbra, a huntress from Wind Path.

The third one had the same skin, eye and hair color as the first woman, but her hair was short and layered. She wore a white v-neck with a line of small silver hearts circling at her waist. She wore white yoga pants and white high tops with black laces. Her name was Blanka Griffin, the younger identical twin sister of Carmina.

The last one was a woman with tanned skin and brown eyes. Although it was hard to see under her green hijab, she had long brown hair. She wore a long white shirt with runic designs in yellow font on the sleeves under a set of bronze chainmail. She wore beige pants with a royal purple belt paired with forest green slip-ons. This was Maza Bashir, a huntress from Argus.

As team CUBB moved forward, Hazel was shown fighting a pale skinned huntress with white hair in a shoulder-length ponytail with her back to the camera. As she was punched in the face, her outfit was seen; a white maxi dress with white tights and green stilettos. Ducking to avoid Hazel's next move, her green eyes reflected her determination to defeat her opponent as retrieved and held her wind-dust claymore in her hands.

"Your days are over!" the huntress proclaimed.

She struck the sword directly at him, and he lifted up his hand to stop it from slicing his head open. The huntress looked in surprise as he felt no pain. "On the contrary, it is actually your days that are over."

Taking his other hand and putting it on the blade painlessly, he yanked the claymore out of her hands and tossed it aside, much to her shock and terror. She tried to run, but the strongman grabbed her by the neck and began to suffocate her with his hands. Her eyes widened in fear as she suffered from asphyxiation. She soon ran of air and was tossed aside. Another huntress defeated. Hazel got out the list and crossed out Lali Choi.

The scene transitioned to Cinder reading her book before a knock on the door was heard. She quickly put the book under her pillow as Salem entered the room.

"Are you ready to resume?"

Cinder grimly nodded in the affirmative and went along with her mistress. As she walked down the corridor, Emerald and Mercury observed from afar, the former of which looked extremely concerned.

The montage ended with Whitley back in his room, writing something down on a piece of paper. He paused for a moment, thinking to himself, _January 21st. Two weeks until the deadline. Likely to be several paintings._ As Whitley made note of this in his bedroom, he sighed and put the paper in his desk. _I really wish that I, I mean she, had a bigger window of time to work with. Two weeks, fourteen days, a fortnight. Half of her time has expired. This is crazy! What if she fails?_ He breathed to calm himself. _She won't. She'll come through. She's my one last hope, so she'll have to do.  
_


	62. Easier to Run

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys and gals. Hope you're enjoying the show! This will probably be my last chapter for a (brief) while. I'm approaching finals week quite soon. Hopefully, the next chapter will be out in time for the holiday season!

Anyway, let's get back to the story.

* * *

As Weiss finished her rehearsal with Mrs. Delaney, the heiress walked through the halls of the Schnee Manor back to her room. As she shut the door to her room, she sighed softly and began thinking to herself.

 _Oh man. Rehearsals have been exhausting. And with two weeks and a day until the concert, that means there are at least fifteen left, assuming I continue to do one a day with or without Mrs. Delaney. I haven't had much time to think about going to Atlas._

She took a drink of water from her glass before looking over General Ironwood's letter.

 _The deadline for entering Atlas is right after the SDC Charity concert. Seems later than usual... Either way, should I really go? The whole reason I went to Beacon in the first place was to get away from my father. Maybe I should go. Mother told me that I could still be free. I wouldn't be alone... But if I went to Atlas, would I really try to find new teammates? There's no guarantee that I would be able to find new teammates, or that I would like them and get along with them. But if I chose not to join the Team Reformation Queue, I would be very lonely. Maybe even more lonely than I am now. I may not have my friends from Beacon anymore, but I still have Klein, and Estelle too._

She sighed internally and thought back to her friends. _I miss them. I miss all of them. Nora, Ren..._ Her eyes began to water and she sniffed. _Pyrrha. Even that dolt Jaune. I miss my teammates... Yang, Blake, even Ruby. Once I thought of her as the most annoying little brat, but she's really my best friend. What I wouldn't give to see them all again... But I know that's not possible. Teams JNPR and RWBY are scattered forevermore, and Pyrrha is dead. I failed to save her...  
_

Despite her best efforts, a few tears fell from her eyes and went down her face until they hit the floor like drops of rain.

* * *

Pyrrha's loose hair blew around in the wind as her hood hung down. As the heroic quintet moved on further into the outskirts of Vale, they found themselves nearby a large village. However, upon further examination, they realized it was actually a city.

"Here we are; the city of Aquarin." Ren told his teammates. "One of the few major settlements known to be a city outside kingdom limits."

"Alright. It feels like we've been on the road forever." Nora complained. "We can sleep safely for once."

"It's only been two weeks."

"But we have encountered a lot of Grimm during this time." Pyrrha added. "Hopefully we can catch a breath, and a break."

"Uh, guys... We got a problem." Jaune told them.

He motioned to the city before them. It was an area about half as big as Vale, with a big wooden fence around the perimeter. There were guard posts at both the north and south entrances, each patrolled by two guards with a spear in their hand. But the biggest and most disturbing detail was that there were wanted posters of Pyrrha Nikos lined on the wall, along with images of her face and her name in red crossed circles, a small scale horse emblem and even a large poster in big red letters reading;

 _Important notice for all residents and visitors:_

 _What to do if you find Pyrrha Nikos;_

 _1\. If you see Pyrrha, challenge her at your own risk. If you are not skilled enough to face her, call for the closest authorities you can find._

 _2\. Leave metal items at your home. She used her metal-bending semblance to tear Penny Polendina apart and will use metal objects against you. This includes jewelry, decorations and kitchenware._

 _3\. In the event that you find her and successfully capture her, bind her in rope, NOT CHAINS! Don't even think about handcuffs! Other good alternatives include duct tape, long thin pieces of cloth, and, if you are able to obtain one, a straitjacket._

 _Remember, she is very dangerous! Challenge at your own risk._

 _Wanted; For the murder of Penny Polendina, and starting the attack on Beacon_

 _Reward; 25,000 Lien_

Ruby looked at the city's walls in despair. "Oh no..."

Ren said nothing but looked on in sad silence.

Nora sarcastically quipped, "Aw, that's just great." She gave the knight a displeased look. "What now, boss?"

Jaune answered, "I... I don't know. Honestly, I really don't like the idea of staying here, but I think I speak for all of us."

"You're not wrong." Nora admitted. "They really have it in for Pyrrha big time."

"I'm afraid I have to agree." Ruby stated.

"What they said." Ren responded.

The red haired woman said nothing, but she didn't have to. Her silence spoke volumes about how she felt.

Jaune turned back to his teammate. "Pyrrha, you are the co-leader. You are also the subject in question. Therefore, I am leaving this decision up to you. Do we enter the Forbidden City, or do we move on to the next settlement?"

"Hmm..." She began. "Honestly, I don't like the idea of staying here, even with my disguise. But I fear that we may not have a choice. We've been on the road for weeks, and our supplies are beginning to run out."

Her boyfriend raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Pyrrha nodded. "Ren's run out of supplies to make meals with, which means our supply of rations is dwindling. How many rations do we have?"

"I'm not sure." Ren motioned to Jaune. "Could you hand me your bag?" Jaune handed his bag to Pyrrha, who in turn handed it to Ren. He began counting silently in his head. A few moments later, he finished counting. "We have thirty rations. Assuming that's three per day, times five people- that's fifteen rations in a day. We'd run out in two days. Assuming two rations a day, that's ten per day. We would run out in three days. Trying to do one ration a day would really be pushing it, but assuming none of us got hungry or angry and made it through, we'd burn through five a day and last for six days. Somehow, I don't think that would work well. Alternatively, Nora could hunt some game for us and I could prepare it, although it would slow us down..."

"That doesn't sound very ideal, especially considering that we're still in early winter." She answered. "And what about water?"

"We have five canteens, each capable of holding two quarts of water. We had them last filled Comforting Inn, where we stayed at roughly two weeks ago. We're almost out of water, and it's lot harder to find potable water than food. And if we don't have it, we'll die of dehydration in days."

"Well it's official. We need more food/rations, water, dust... Not to mention that Rouge Gorlois will need a weapon to call her own."

Jaune looked at his girlfriend curiously. "Don't you already have Milo and Akouo, and the ten remaining swords of Floating Array saved for emergencies?"

"Those are Pyrrha's weapons, remember?" 'Rouge' looked down in sorrow. "Pyrrha can't show herself to the world with the threat against her."

"Oh..." He hung his head in sorrow. "Right..."

"Also, ten swords? I counted nine in my bag. Where's the tenth one?" she questioned.

"Well. I still have the sword and circlet." He put his backpack down and showed them the sword and the damaged circlet Pyrrha gave him months ago. By now, the golden circlet had its gold paint tarnished and even a small line of rust beginning to form.

Nora raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You brought them with us? Why?"

"Well, after you and Ren left for Fiti, Pyrrha gave me these to remember her by if we never saw her again. But since she's back, I figured I'd take them with me. Maybe I'll get some use out of them..."

"That would explain a lot." 'Rouge' concluded. "Either way, we have to go into the Forbidden City. I would like to believe that I could deceive the guards if I had to, but we should come up with a backup plan in case."

"Alright..." He put away the mementos. "Two guards each entrance, who knows how many law enforcement officers, hunters and other warriors... Does anyone know how many huntsmen and huntresses are in this city?"

"At least five, last I looked. But that was years ago, so their numbers have likely increased since then." Ren answered.

"Okay, total of four guards, at least five professional hunters, assuming seventeen police officers in the police force, that's at least twenty six fighters we'd have to go up against, possibly more, in the worst case scenario. Considering how we barely managed to beat Charles Mustard, trying to face off five or more huntsmen, along with other fighters... almost certainly wouldn't end well. So if we're caught, we run. If that is not possible, then we fight them. If things go wrong, we meet up back here. Got it?"

Nora nodded, Ruby gave a halfhearted thumbs up, Pyrrha grimly nodded.

Ren answered, "Alright. Although, there might be one problem. What if they recognize her voice?"

"Hmm... I could try and imitate Rouge's voice." The masked heroine cleared her throat, and spoke in a more French accent, "Salut! I'm Rouge, a super-hot fashion model. Look at me, I'm gorgeous!"

Jaune laughed. "Oh my God. That's too good!" He continued laughing before straightening himself out fifteen seconds later. "In all seriousness, that was actually a very good intimation of her voice." He turned to his teammates. "Are we ready to enter the Forbidden City?"

"Ready!" Nora and Ruby exclaimed.

"Let's go." Ren answered.

"Okay, here we go." Pyrrha answered. She cleared her throat and said in her accent, "I mean okay. Here we go."

She tucked her loose hair into her hood and put it back up. The quintet was seen approaching the entrance, close enough to be seen by the guards but not heard by them.

"Remember guys, poker faces up." Jaune instructed.

Nora looked confused. "What does that mean?"

"Just remain calm." Ren answered.

"Can do."

As the quintet approached the gate, the guards used their spears to block the entrance.

"Halt!" the first guard yelled.

"State your name and business." the second one ordered.

The leader addressed each person in the group one by one, starting with himself. "Jaune Arc," He motioned to the valkyrie. "Nora Valkyrie," Then to the ninja. "Lie Ren," To the simple soul. "Ruby Rose," And finally, the masked heroine. "and Rouge Gorlois." The knight continued, "We are a band of warriors who wish to purchase supplies for our long journey and stay here overnight."

The first one looked at Jaune. "I'm guessing your the leader of this... squad?"

"I am. That isn't a problem, is it?"

"I suppose that it isn't it. But your friend Rouge Gorlois looks suspicious, hiding herself. How can we tell that she's not an evil criminal? Like Pyrrha Nikos?"

 _Because I love her._ is what Jaune wanted to say. But he couldn't.

"Because I am a good and honest soul." 'Rouge' answered in her best French accent.

The second guard responded, "If you're truly as honest as you say you are, then let your hood down."

All eyes were on the red cloaked figure as she lifted her hood down with her hands. As the black gloves were seen, her masked face was revealed to all.

The first looked at her closely. "You have her eyes, and the same crimson locks."

"But she lacks the traditional circlet, and her hair is loose." the second one countered.

"You do look a like Pyrrha Nikos..."

"Yeah, I get that a lot..." 'Rouge' answered.

The second guard began, "So, Rouge, who are you, and why are you hanging out with these former Beacon Academy students?"

"I am a professional huntress, gentlemen. And I've taken these former students under my wings."

"Where are you from?" the first one asked.

She honestly answered, "I'm from Mistral."

A pause was heard before the grilling continued. "Did you go to Beacon like these youngsters did?"

"No, I graduated from Haven just this year. I was a member of team LUNR (Lunar)."

The second one raised an eyebrow. "Then how come you and your teammates weren't in the Vytal Festival Tournament?"

"That, is because I have no teammates." 'Rouge' answered sadly. "Call it a curse, a series of unfortunate events, or just plain old bad luck, but every year, tragedy fell upon us. When team LUNR was first formed, we believed we would graduate together, but we were terribly mistaken. First to go was our team's original leader, Luna. She sacrificed herself to save us from the Grimm on our first training mission. After her death, Urdina took her place as leader, but was killed by Grimm the following year during a camping trip gone wrong in between second and third year. Nubia took Urdina's place as leader thereafter. Alas, she was killed while trying to protect the village of Zephyros from Grimm during the city's annual Flower Festival. She saved so many lives at the cost of her own. At the end of the third year, I was the only one remaining. I nearly died during my fourth year as I faced a powerful madwoman head to head, but by some miracle stroke of luck, I survived. I graduated all alone, and I miss my friends dearly."

"So why didn't you enter the Vytal Tournament during your second year with your teammates or your fourth year by yourself?"

"That was because I believed I had no chance against the competition in either of those two years. During the second year, my teammates agreed with me. Fourth year, I was all alone. It takes a lot of guts to enter the tournament without any friends or help. I know that two years ago, Claire Blanche entered by herself and won. I can only imagine that it took a lot of courage on her part." She looked at the ground in sorrow. "Unfortunately, I lack such courage."

"So how did you find these guys again?" the first one repeated.

She lifted her head back up. "I was getting to that. After graduating, I decided to see the Vytal Festival Tournament in person by going to Vale to get my mind off my troubles. Alas, I never could have foreseen what happened the night that Beacon fell. As the city fell to its knees, I found myself fighting against several Grimm, corrupted Atlas androids and White Fang members. While roaming the city, I found these former students fighting against the Grimm and as a huntress, I had to do something. I quickly stepped in and saved them from the claws of the Grimm dragon. I was unable to slay the beast, for it was too mighty even for me, but I did witness it being turned to stone before it could cause any further damage."

"A Grimm dragon? But aren't those extinct?" the second one asked.

"That's what we all thought, but unfortunately, it seems that we were all terribly wrong."

"Alright. I think we've grilled her enough." The first guard answered. "You may enter." He retracted his spear. "I hope you enjoy your stay and I wish you all safe travels."

"I don't know..." the second guard began. "Something doesn't seem right."

"They're being honest. Now retract your spear."

Reluctantly, he did so. The quintet entered the city, and the second guard glared at 'Rouge' as he watched her pass through the entrance. Once they stood far away enough from the guards, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"I can't believe that actually worked." Ruby stated.

"How did you do that so well?" Jaune asked.

"Simple." She continued in her altered voice. "Continuing to take inspiration from Rouge Arc, I used the first names of her teammates; Luna Diaz, Urdina Morris, and Nubia Nyx. Then I mixed lies with the truth, making it all the more harder to untangle."

He blinked in surprise. "I am strangely amazed and terrified at the same time."

"We better find a place to stay, the sooner the better." Ren stated.

As they ventured into the city, 'Rouge' did her best to remain calm. Civilians passed them by, not noticing their presence or not caring that they were here. The city seemed to be an even mixture of olden village with cobblestone roads, cottages and log cabins and newer paved roads with skyscrapers and modern apartments. As they walked by an alley in an older part of the city, a small stone was thrown towards their feet. They all stopped and looked around, trying to find where the stone came from. Another stone was gently thrown at them.

"Psst! Jaune, over here!" a voice whispered.

The five went closer into the alleyway, following the sound of the voice. "Hello?" Jaune called out.

They saw a man with white skin, brown eyes, and shoulder length red hair step out of the shadows. He was wearing a crimson turtleneck with slightly torn left sleeve and brown dress pants with black shoes. He was holding several reusable bags of items by the handles on both of his arms.

"Um, do we know you?" Nora quipped.

Jaune squinted his eyes. "Wait, is that...?"

"Edom." The masked heroine answered in her normal voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you guys the same thing." he answered. "It's too dangerous to speak out here. Quickly, come with me."

Edom quickly ran through the alleyways, and Pyrrha and Jaune followed suit. After exchanging confused looks, Ren, Ruby and Nora went after them as well. Roughly ten minutes later, they stood in front of a simple wooden cottage. Edom got his keys out and unlocked his door and hurried the heroes inside. Once they were all inside, he used his back to shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief. He then set the bags down on the 'island' of the kitchen.

"I apologize for the rush, but I couldn't risk being seen or heard by the authorities."

"Who are you and what do you want with us?" Nora asked.

"I'm Edom. You need not fear, young lass, I'm no enemy." At this Nora seemed to calm down. "I know these two," he motioned to Pyrrha and Jaune, "because they were some of the last customers my electronic store had before I was forced to shut down."

Pyrrha looked sadly at Edom. "What happened?"

"Couldn't make enough money to stay in business no matter how hard I tried. Ten years of living my dream, only to have it destroyed right in front of me. I lost almost everything in the Fall of Beacon. My home, eventually my business, and even my wife..."

"Oh..."

"I am sorry for your loss." Jaune spoke.

"Thank you, young man, although it does little to ease my soul. I'm trying just protect the only thing I have left..."

"And what might that be?"

"Daddy!" a young squeaky voice called out. "Are you home yet?"

A young girl, probably six or seven years old, ran into room. She had pale skin, long white hair and brown eyes. She wore a white dress with three thin blue lines above the hem and a pair of blue slip-ons.

"Aw..." Ruby smiled. "Who might this cutie-pie be?"

Edom answered, "This is the one thing I have left; my daughter, Gliss."

"Who are all these people?" Gliss asked.

"They're friends of ours. The members of team JNPR." He motioned to the red-hooded girl. "And their friend, Ms..."

"Rose. Ruby Rose." the simple soul answered.

Gliss looked around confused. "Where's Pyrrha?"

"She's wearing a disguise to hide from those who want to hurt her." Edom turned to the masked heroine. "Could you take off your mask now that you're in a safe place?"

Pyrrha took off her mask. Gliss smiled and her eyes lit up. "Oh, Pyrrha!" The little girl hugged her leg.

"She's a big fan of you guys, especially Pyrrha." Edom explained.

"I'm so glad you're okay! I thought those nasty monsters got you!"

"What did she mean by monsters?" Ren asked.

Gliss broke her hug as Jaune responded, "Come on, she's talking about the Grimm, isn't she?"

"Not the Grimm." She looked at the heroes seriously. "Worse than Grimm."

The knight scratched his head. "How could these 'monsters' be worse than the Grimm?"

Edom looked them forlornly. "You don't know?"

"Know what?" Ruby asked.

"About them. The Trojan Alliance."

"No. Who are they?"

The former business owner sighed deeply. "The Trojan Alliance is a group of civilians, law enforcement officers, soldiers and even a few huntsmen and huntresses all united for one sole purpose; to bring Pyrrha Nikos to justice. They believe that she is guilty of murdering Penny Polendina and starting the Fall of Beacon. No one is entirely sure who started the group, but their influence spreads to the outskirts of Vale, Vale kingdom itself, and even as far as Patch. I've heard rumors about them trying to start branches in the other kingdoms, but I do not know if they were successful or not. Sadly, they've been very successful here."

Pyrrha looked at the former business owner sadly. "How did this happen?"

"Three months ago, a few weeks after Beacon's fall, members of the Trojan Alliance met with the mayor of this city; Garnet Scarlatti. It is uncertain whether or not she hated Pyrrha from the start, or if they convinced Garnet that Pyrrha was a despicable person who needed to be stopped. Either way, she chose to join them. As a result, she has banned free speech, shutdown all newspaper businesses save for the one she owns and has implemented other strict rules. They've got wanted posters, petitions, funding campaigns and a police force that's more than doubled in the last three months. And if anyone tears down a wanted poster for any reason, they are charged a 500 Lien fine for every instance this occurs. What's worse is that this city is outside of Vale's territory, so no one can really can stop her. Technically what I'm doing is highly illegal, and I should be reporting you to the authorities."

"So why are you doing this? Risking your reputation and possibly your life to help us?" Ren asked him.

"Because I'm smarter than my fellow citizens. I saw the footage myself, and I saw the look of terror upon Pyrrha's face. She never meant for Penny to be destroyed. Sadly, the Trojan Alliance is blinded by anger and rage, and are unable to see that she's really innocent."

Jaune felt his stomach churn in fear. Even more people were after his love. He dared to ask, "What are they planning to do to her?"

"That is where the group varies. There is some debate on what should be done with Pyrrha if/when they capture her. Some of their members are more humane, and simply want to see her locked up for life. Others are crueler, and are calling for her execution. A smaller few are asking for her to be tortured and executed. And others are in between. Many believe that Pyrrha should ideally be imprisoned for life, and if that's not possible, then execute her."

"Oh... Great... We've already encountered trouble." the knight lamented. "Charles Mustard not only tried to kill Pyrrha, he nearly killed all of us."

"Do you think he was part of the Trojan Alliance?" Nora asked.

"Not likely. Mr. Mustard was stationed in Beacon this whole time." Pyrrha answered. "It also seems that Emerald and/or Mercury stole his scroll, possibly caused him to hallucinate and his sanity crumbled into pieces."

Ren asked, "Did Charles believe you were responsible for all this chaos as time went on, or did he deem you guilty from the very beginning?"

She whipped her hair with her hand. "I think he hated me from the beginning, and his opinion of me only worsened over time." She looked at Edom. "So what are you doing here?"

"Well, about a week or so after you and Jaune visited my electronics ship, I went out of business and went to evacuate Vale. I choose to go to Aquarian, thinking I could make a living here. Alas, things haven't been going too well in my favor. I've been doing various odd jobs when I can to try and make ends meet. I don't have enough money to send Gliss to a daycare. I would hire a babysitter, but I'm worried that they might corrupt her and cause her to lose faith in her hero. Not enough money to live, to move again, nowhere else to go... After Garnet implemented her authoritarian system, I've been stuck here between a rock and a hard place. It gets lonely for me and Gliss, not knowing who to trust other than each other."

"Then why don't we just storm City Hall and take her down?" Nora asked.

"Easier said than done, Miss Valkyrie. Garnet was a personal squad of guards patrolling the entrance and the interior. Not to mention her personal bodyguards are a team of three huntsmen and one huntress that graduated from Beacon ten years ago."

"Looks like Jaune was right. We can't fight our way out." Nora groaned and pouted. "So much for breaking legs and taking names..."

After a brief moment of silence, Ren put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "Don't worry Nora. By the time we're done here, that'll hardly matter to us. Speaking of which, who wants to come with me to get supplies?"

"I'll go." Nora said still pouting.

"I'd rather not go out there if I don't have to." Pyrrha answered.

"Alright. Since your alter-ego Rouge has requested a new weapon for her, what do you want her to wield?"

"Hmm..."

 _I could go with a dust filled sword, similar to Rouge's dust daggers. But which kind of dust to use? Not fire. Too painful. Wind probably wouldn't help my fighting style... Ice or electric? Hmm... Ice would be an interesting one to try out. Let's do it._

"How about an ice dust filled sword that can convert into a gun?" Pyrrha requested.

Ren finished writing her request down. "That can be arranged. Anyone else like to come?"

"I'll pass." Jaune answered.

"I suppose I'll join you two." Ruby said.

"You ready to leave?" Ren asked.

"Uh-huh."

"Yep." Nora answered.

"Alright then. Let's go. Assuming nothing goes wrong, we should be back in a few hours."

"Take care." Jaune said.

Pyrrha smiled. "See you soon."

"Be careful out of there." Edom advised.

"Good luck." Gliss said.

Ren opened the door, and Ruby and Nora exited the cottage. Afterwards, the lotus warrior walked out, closing the door behind him.

* * *

The scene transitioned to Salem in Evernight Castle. As she gazed through a Seer, she saw the ruins of Beacon and the Grimm wondering the area.

"Reinforce our numbers at Beacon. The relic is there." she spoke to it.

She waved her hand and through the looking glass saw Sienna and Maura walking through the forest of Vale.

 _Hmm... Sienna Khan has been trying to aid her friend Maura in restoring order to the Mistralian White Fang. It's highly unlikely that she'll even succeed. But just to be sure... I'll need to separate those two. Now for the real question- how will I do that without making my presence known to anyone?_


	63. Do You Believe in Magic?

Author's Notes:

-Hey everyone! I finished my finals earlier than I thought I would. As a result, you get an early Christmas gift. Enjoy!

* * *

Yang sat on her bed in the confines of her new room. Even though Ruby was long gone, she still isolated herself here. Despite the fact that she had been attacked, tortured and brutally interrogated, Taiyang was still trying to get her to move on. Or was it to move forward? Yang wasn't sure. With Mrs. Khloris arriving to take arm measurement data and on route back to Atlas, she wondered if this was a forced response as a result of the scorpion-man's attack.

 _Or is it really forced?_ She breathed in and exhaled a sad sigh. _Or was he planning this before the scorpion's attack?_ She internally sighed. _I know dad's trying to help, but... what if he can't? What if I'm just a lost cause? Lost my mother long ago, and more recently an arm, my sister, my best friend, my hopes and dreams, my confidence, everything but my life..._ She threw her back to the bed. _I'm stuck between a state of not wanting to live, but not willing to take my life. Alive, but not living._

As she laid there, she noticed the picture frame on her next stand. She reached for it and examined the picture- an image of Ruby and Yang in their younger years. Yang was six, and Ruby was four. The thought of Tyrian finding her invaded her mind. She dropped the picture frame, shattering into pieces as a terrifying vision of him finding Ruby and running away with her bound and gagged over his shoulder manifested in her mind.

 _And my dear baby sister..._ Her heart pounded with fear. _What if Qrow can't find her? What if she perishes at the scorpion's hands?_ She breathed in several times, trying to calm herself, but as her fear slowly vanished, sorrow took it's place. She began to sob in silence. _Ruby... Wherever you are, I'm hope that you're okay..._

* * *

Meanwhile in Aquarin, Ren, Ruby and Nora were gathering the supplies needed to continue their journey. As they walked away from Edom's cottage through the old part of the city, Ren looked at the list of needed supplies.

"We should probably start with the simplest task first; acquiring Rouge's weapon."

Ruby looked confused for a moment, before realizing. "Oh right."

"Now then, to the nearest hunter's supply store!" Nora declared.

As they made their way from the older part of the city to the newer part, Ruby looked around in awe, smiling. The three stood on a cobblestone street, and about a thousand feet in front of them was a paved road in an area with skyscrapers, sidewalks, shopping centers and modern apartment buildings. Over by the border between the new and old part of the city was a sign that said, _No automobiles beyond this point._

"I have to admit, aside from the city's hostility towards Pyrrha, this is a really nice place." Ruby spoke to her friends.

"Aquarin is a very interesting city." Ren responded. "It pays homage to both the simple old times of villages and the modern city society of bustling activity."

Silence reigned as the three continued their journey. Nora noticed a bunch of wanted posters of Pyrrha Nikos taped to brick walls, lampposts and other surfaces. "Are you sure we're doing the right thing?"

Ren raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well... Garnet's acting like a dictator!" Nora exclaimed.

"Not so loud, Nora!" Ruby whispered.

"You may be right, but there's little we can do about it. Lest we wish to stir up a hornet's nest." Ren answered.

"I don't get it. How did Garnet even beat Eric? It makes no sense."

Ruby scratched her head, horribly confused. "Huh?"

"She's talking about when we were here before." Ren clarified.

"You have been here before?"

"You have to remember- me and Nora have been a lot of places. We were here three years ago and we stayed here for a year and a half. About six months after we first arrived here, Garnet Scarlatti started her campaign to run for mayor of Aquarian, challenging the previous mayor Eric Green, who had been holding the office for twenty years. It appears that sometime in 76 AGW, well after we left, she won and took Green's place as mayor."

Ruby nervously smiled. "Shouldn't that mean her term is about to expire and she could be replaced by someone who... doesn't hate Pyrrha?"

"Under normal and ideal circumstances yes, but with Scarlatti expanding her authoritarian power, I don't think anyone's going to dare challenge her. Also, we should really keep quiet about that."

Ruby softly sighed so that she wasn't heard. _This really stinks._ She thought. _We're supposed to be heroes, doing the right thing, but we're powerless to do anything. Unless we want to disturb the peace, which would be a really bad idea. Still, maybe it's for the better..._

She tried to smile, even though it was hard. As she continued forward, something caught her eye; every few feet she saw a horse emblem on the walls. She stopped and looked at the emblem in curiosity.

Her friends noticed, with Nora asking, "Ruby? What's wrong?"

"I saw that emblem on the gate... and I'm seeing it here. What is it?"

"It's the emblem of the Trojan Alliance." a man answered. "Any town who has the symbol plastered throughout the town has a mayor or ruler who is allied with the alliance."

"So, you're a member?" Nora asked, trying not to show disdain in her face.

"Oh no, I'm just a simple man, but I do support their cause."

"How do we identity their members?" Ren asked.

"Members have the emblem in the form of a pin on their outfit. Some even tattoo it onto the knuckle of their hand." He looked at the three heroes curiously. "You're not from here, are you?"

"Not really."

"Do you know what the Trojan Alliance is or what their goal is?"

"We know that much." Ruby stated calmly.

"Alright, good. Just treat the Trojan Alliance members with respect and you visitors should be alright. I'd stay and chat, but I gonna run. Have a good day!"

The man dashed off before they could say another word. The three went onward, with Ruby sadly and softly sighing as they did. It took Ruby and the other two members of team JNPR a while to find the hunter's supply store, but they did eventually find it in the newer, more modern part of the city.

Ruby looked up at the sign above her, which read; _Hunter's Goods_

There was another sign in the window that read, _30% off on rations! 50% off on dust!_

"Well, looks like we'll be able to knock out several birds with one stone."

The three smiled at each other before entering the store. They saw packets of dust in various different forms, MREs and ingredients, canteens, tents and travel bags. Behind a counter was weapons and ammunition. They even had a convenient water bottle refilling station. The three went up to the counter, encountering a shopkeeper in his early thirties.

"You look a little bit young to be wielding weapons, kiddos." he said to them.

"It's not for us." Ren began. "It's for our teacher... Rouge Gorlois."

"We already have weapons." Ruby told him. "We're former huntsman academy students."

"Really?" He looked at them skeptically. "Then show me your weapons."

Ren got out his weapons. "StormFlower."

Nora got out her hammer and held it in the air with her right hand. "Magnhild."

Ruby retrieved her scythe and held it as if she was about to fight. "Crescent Rose."

"Wow, such fine weaponry! Did you design them yourselves?!"

The youngest semi-pro huntress smiled and answered for all of them, "We did."

"I see now that you're legitimate trainees and not crooks." He smiled. "I have however, noticed that you two are members of team JNPR. Where are the other two?"

Nora began to stammer, but Ren quickly stepped in. "Pyrrha went missing and we never found her after the fall of Beacon, whereas our leader is resting after a long journey."

The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow, but shrugged it off. "So, what does your friend Rouge need?"

"She has requested an ice dust filled sword that can convert into a gun."

"That can be arranged. Luckily, I already have a controvertible sword capable of holding dust. And since this for a bonafide huntress, I'll even insert the dust for free."

Ruby beamed. "Wow, thank you!"

"You're welcome."

The shopkeeper took a sword off the wall and got out a packet of powdered ice dust. Unscrewing the hilt from the blade, he carefully poured the dust into the weapon. Once he was done, he put the hilt back on. "Is that all you're here for?"

"There's a few more things we'd like to get."

"Alright. Just bring everything up here."

A brief montage began with Ruby looking at packets of powdered ice dust, then Ren looking at rations and Nora looking closely at various hammers on the wall while musing to herself. The montage ended after they walked out of the store with items in bags.

"Alright, what's left on the list?" Nora asked.

"I think we got almost everything." Ren answered, before realizing... "Everything but a map of Anima and Sanus."

As Ruby looked at a library they were passing by, Nora asked, "And where are we going to find that?"

"Hey, Ren, Nora. Do you mind going on without me?" Ruby asked. "There's something I'd like to look for at the library."

"No problem. Let's meet back here in about forty-five minutes."

"Sure thing."

"Good luck searching."

Nora responded, "See you later!"

After waving her friends goodbye, Ruby made her way to the library. As her friends walked out of sight, she turned around and looked really sad as she went forward.

 _Qrow once told me that silver eyed people were destined to live the life of a warrior. But there has to be more to the story._ She sighed sadly. _I wish mom was here._ _But even if she was alive, would she have all the answers that I seek?_ _Hopefully the library should have some answers._

Her thoughts soon came to a halt as she found herself in front of a big rectangular building with large wooden doors. Overheard was a wooden sign reading, _Old Aquarian Public Library._ Opening the doors, she stepped into a long hall with bare purple walls, the paint slowly beginning to fade away.

As she exited the hall, she went through the motion detector and found herself in a lobby with a circular help desk in the center. At the desk was a tired librarian who was sleeping like a baby. There signs overhead indicating where each section was. To Ruby's immediate right was the children's center. Behind her and to her left was a teen section. In front of her was a sign on the ground reading, _Archives and adult fiction on the second floor_ and a wooden door that said 'Stairs' on it.

She went to the help desk, but did not find a bell to sound to wake up the librarian. This middle aged man in his fifties had pale skin, brown hair slowly falling out and an attire consisting of standard business suit and a green necktie. He looked so peaceful. She hated having to wake him up, but if there was any chance of finding something, she had no choice.

The simple soul gently nudged at his shoulder. "Um, sir?"

"Uh?" He looked around and his eyes opened up, revealing them to be green. Upon seeing her, he stammered, "Oh sorry. Didn't realize people were actually here." He yawned and stretched his arms. "Apologies. How may I help you?"

"I'm looking for books on silver eyes, or silver eyed warrior legends. You think you could help me?"

"Sure. Follow me."

Getting up from the desk, he went and made his way to the wooden door. Following his lead, she followed him into the stairway and up the stairs to the second floor. Upon reaching the second floor, the two entered a large room with multiple tall bookshelves and filing cabinets. As they walked through the room, Ruby saw several bookshelves with hundreds, if not thousands of books. To Ruby, this place seemed like a maze. They reached an intersection of wooden desks, couches and chairs in the library labyrinth and turned right. They continued walking down the corridor until the librarian eventually stopped.

"If a book on silver eyes is anywhere, it should be here." He looked at the shelf, examining the names on the book's spine. "Oh boy. Seems I may have been mistaken. Oh, now it hits me. That book was checked out months ago and never returned! Dang, I'm stupid."

Ruby touched his shoulder. "No, you're not. Maybe there's a book about old legends and fairy tales?"

"I know we have one of those books, but I don't know if it mentions silver-eyed warriors."

The two went back the way they came, only instead of turning left to go back to the door, they went straight. They passed three bookshelves and turned right, and stopped about half-way through the row.

"Hmm. There we are." He grabbed two different books and handed them to her. "Hopefully one or both of these books will have something about Silver Eyes."

"Thank you, good sir."

The simple soul examined the table of contents for each book as he responded, "Please, just call me Green."

Ruby looked up at him curiously. "Green? As in, Eric Green?"

He smiled and nodded. "That's the one."

"So this is what you did after losing to Scarlatti?"

"It is." The two walked over to a desk to check out the books. "The previous librarian fell ill and died and had no one to run the library, so I stepped up and took the reigns. Unfortunately, within the last three months, the library's become deserted." He walked behind the desk as Ruby set down the books. "Hardly anyone comes here anymore."

As he scanned the books, Ruby was saddened. "That's really sad to hear."

"Indeed it is." He grimaced as he printed out the receipts and stuck them in the books. "It's a sad, sad state of affairs. Both for me, this city, and everyone here. With this, and with what Scarlatti has done over the last three months, this city no longer feels like home to me." He paused. "And I've lived here my entire life."

She took the books and looked at him, a faint spark of hope in her eyes. "So, you don't hate Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Of course not. I saw the footage myself, and I know she's innocent. Sadly, I'm all alone. I fear I may be the only person in this whole city who secretly supports her."

"Actually, you're not."

"I'm not? Who else is there?"

"A man named Edom, and his daughter Gliss. They live in the older part of the city. If you find them, I'm sure they might be able to aid you."

"Thanks for letting me know. Your books are due back February 21st. Hope you have a nice day."

"You're welcome. Thanks for helping me find those books. And a good day to you as well!"

Ruby left the library in high hopes, feeling her soul lifted. She smiled genuinely for the first time since coming to this grim, forbidden city. Upon finding her friends, she saw that Ren was wearing some new clothes. He now had a longer, sleeveless green tailcoat with black and silver trimming. Under it, he wore a black, sleeveless turtleneck with red, tasseled ropes over his hips, pants that were tighter below the knees and calf-high open-toed sandals. From his middle finger to his biceps ran gradient pink-to-black detached sleeves ending in metal armbands. He had his hair loose, blowing around in the slight breeze.

"Hey guys. Nice look Ren."

"Thank you." Ren responded. "I figured it was time for something new." He looked at Ruby curiously. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. In fact," She looked around to make sure no one else was actively listening to them "I think I even found a new friend for Edom and Gliss."

"Who might that be?"

"Eric Green, the previous mayor. After his final term expired, he took over the Old Aquarian public library. While helping me to find books, he confided to me that he doesn't hate Pyrrha at all and believes she is innocent."

"Really?" Nora asked. "Well, we'll be returning with good news then. Maybe there's still some light left in this dark, desolate town."

"Oh come on, it's not that bad." Nora glared at him. "Okay, it's bad, but it could be worse."

She shrugged. "I guess that's true."

The three smiled politely as they made their way back Edom's cottage, supplies in hand (or on their back). As Ruby saw the Trojan Alliance emblem and all the wanted posters of Pyrrha, she looked away and tried to ignore it. Things were bad, but they could have been worse.

 _Maybe things are starting to change for the better._ Ruby thought. _Pyrrha's decision to disguise herself is paying off, we were able to get their supplies without any problems, I found books that could help me find answers to silver eyed warriors, and maybe even the maidens, which I didn't think about, and there's a few safe places for us. Maybe things aren't so bad after all._


	64. End of All Hope

Author's Notes:

-Hello everyone. Now that it's closer to Christmas, I have a gift for you. (inhales)

 _Deck the Halls with boughs of Holly_

 _Fa la la la, la la la la_

 _'Tis the season to be jolly_

 _Sun, Blake, Weiss, Yang and the Quintet_

 _Fa la la la, la la la la_

 _Moving onward, not quite there yet_

 _Fa la la la, la la la la_

-Hope you enjoyed the small little Christmas carol parody I did there. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

-Considering the time of year, I hate to be that guy, but... I think I'm doing that. For the events in this chapter, I apologize in advance. (Sorry but not sorry!) Then again, it might be obvious from the chapter title... (sees glares) I should probably shut up now...

Now, without further adieu, let the show begin!

* * *

Somewhere in Mistral, Maura and Sienna stood at at the edge of a cliff as the sun stood at its zenith. Below them was the city of Mistral.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Maura asked, looking worried.

"I believe it's time. I've prepared my speech to present to the Mistralian Council, and I've rehearsed it numerous times. I have prepared for all situations, questions and have memorized my speech by heart. I believe that I am ready to testify in your name." Sienna looked at Maura. "I will travel to the Mistralian Council chamber alone and present my testimony to them. Best case scenario, they see the truth and agree to help us stop Athena. Worst case scenario, they don't believe me and attempt to arrest and/or kill me. Here's hoping everything goes well." Sienna knocked on the wood of the nearest tree. "Let's go."

Maura nodded grimly. "Well, here goes nothing."

 _I just hope everything goes well. Both for my sake and for hers._ Sienna silently thought to herself.

"Hold it right there!"

They turned around and widened their eyes in terror. The two White Fang ladies soon found themselves surrounded by a group of huntresses. Upon further examination, Maura realized...

"Oh no. That's team Cub!"

"It's CUBB (Cubeb)!" Ayress responded. "Why do people still get that wrong?!"

"Calm yourself, Ayress!" Carmina ordered. "We've got bigger fish to fry."

Everyone got out their weapons as they prepared for battle. For the huntresses, Carmina wielded a staff with slots for four different kinds of dust- fire, rock, water and wind. At the same time, Ayress got out a mace with fire dust, Blanka retrieved her white arm gauntlets, and Maza got out her battle axe. For the faunus ladies, Sienna summoned Cerberus Whip, which she had wrapped around her arm, and Maura found a set of twin daggers with wind dust in them.

"It's the end of the line, villains!" Blanka exclaimed.

"This isn't what it seems!" Maura protested. "I don't want to fight you!"

"She really doesn't!" Sienna added, hoping they would see reason.

But they didn't. "Enough talk. Let's get them!" Carmina commanded.

The ladies all charged into battle, raising their weapons. Carmina was the first to attack, having her staff slot selected to throw fire dust at the faunus duo. She swung her staff forth to create two waves of fire, one directed at each opponent. Next was Maza, who slashed her axe towards Sienna's head, who barely dodged it as she ducked and sidestepped to avoid the attacks. After leaning back up and dodging fire dust from Ayress's mace, Sienna retaliated by swinging her chain whip around Maza and throwing her back-first into the nearest tree, temporarily throwing her out of the ring.

Sienna then turned to Ayress and attempted to wrap her whip around the mace, but the dark beauty saw right through it and dropped her weapon. But instead of picking it up, she charged forward trying to punch her.

 _Oh crud!_ Sienna thought. She quickly jumped back to avoid Ayress's fists. _What is she doing?_ She nervously thought while continuing to evade her attacks.

The view switched to the Griffin sisters attacking the Mistralian leader. The older one used her staff to throw wind dust at her while the younger one fired explosive dust blasts at her. Maura frantically dashed to dodge each attack, but she knew that it wouldn't work forever. Eventually, she would be worn out. She stopped running and started using her daggers to try and deflect the blasts. Carmina switched her slot back to fire and swung her staff to release a fire wave at the same time Blanka did an explosive dust blasts. Channeling aura through her daggers to form a green x-shield, Maura tried to shield herself from the attack, but she couldn't strengthen her shield quickly enough and her right hand dagger shattered like glass. The blast also knocked her back to the near edge of the cliff.

Upon jumping back from Ayress's roundhouse kick, Sienna saw that Maura was being cornered to the edge of the cliff. She kicked Ayress down and quickly swung her whip towards Maura. "Maura, catch!"

The Mistralian White Fang leader grabbed onto the chain with her other hand. Holding the chain with both of her hands, Sienna swung Maura to the ground. Unfortunately, Maza was waiting for her. She had inserted electric dust into her axe, which had not previously been there, and proceeded to fire at Maura. The White Fang leader backflipped three times, knocking down Ayress on her third one. Sienna ran to her side, as Ayress got up and the huntresses crept towards them.

Maura looked at Sienna worriedly. "What now, boss?"

* * *

Back at Edom's cottage, Jaune and Pyrrha were sitting in the living room, the latter holding Gliss on her lap. A rolled out poster of Pyrrha Nikos that had just been signed by her was on the table in front of the couch they were sitting on. Edom stood in the kitchen as he started preparing dinner.

"So you never thought I was evil?" Pyrrha asked the little girl.

"I never did. You're a hero, Pyrrha." Gliss answered. "No one nor nothing can change my mind."

She faintly smiled at her response. "Glad to see someone still believes in me." She stroked Gliss's hair. "With all the people that want my head on a platter, it's refreshing to see someone who still sees me as a hero."

"What about that one girl in Cachée?" Jaune asked.

"Okay, sure, she saw Pyrrha as a hero, but she doesn't entirely know that she's alive. I gave her a hint that she would return, but I didn't tell her everything. Whereas Gliss knows her hero is alive."

"Good point." He turned back to her. "So of all weapons for your alter ego to wield, why an ice dust sword/gun?"

"In addition to modeling off of Rouge Arc, I wanted a weapon that I already had some experience with. Even though I don't use swords all that often, I know how to fight with them. The tricky part will be using the dust effectively in combat."

Gliss got up, taking her signed poster back to her room as Jaune asked, "What about the gun? Or do you already know how to use that as well?"

"I've used a gun once or twice in training, so I know the basics. Also, that shouldn't be too hard since I already have good aim. I would train here, but there's hardly any space here. Plus I don't want to cause property damage."

"If my memory serves me correctly, about a mile away from here, in the older part of the town, lies a ruined coliseum that people sometimes use as training grounds." Edom answered. "Obviously you'll have to take your mask, but it might be a good way to train yourself."

Pyrrha nodded. "Alright. Now for the real question- who do I train against?"

"You could fight against me." Jaune answered. "I've been trying to strengthen my semblance to be used on myself."

"When have you been doing that?"

As he answered, a flashback of him channeling aura to his feet, left leg, right leg, and both arms appeared over his head. "Sometimes, when I've sat alone guarding the campsite, I've meditated to try and channel my super-charged aura to different parts of my body. But I still need more practice, you need to learn how to use the ice dust well. It'll help both of us."

The flashback ended. "So it's settled." Pyrrha concluded. "After dinner, we head to the coliseum."

She looked at the red mask she had taken off and held it in her left hand. _How did it ever come to this?_

* * *

Back at the Mistralian cliffside, Sienna and Maura were losing the battle. They were no longer had their backs to the edge of the cliff, but the situation was still quite dire.

"What now, boss?"

"We push them back." Sienna answered.

With her remaining dagger, Maura fired wind dust waves in the form of X's trying to push back Ayress and Maza. Ayress stood her ground, picking up her mace to try and block the wind dust with it. Maza was inserting ice dust into her battle axe.

"Please..." Maura pleaded. "I don't want to do this."

Maza looked into Maura's pleading eyes and began to falter. Maura took the opportunity to kick her in the gut, knocking her back first into a tree and knocking her out. Ayress however, showed no hesitation, sending wave after wave of fire at the Mistralian White Fang leader.

Sienna swung her chain whip around, trying to land a hit on her opponent, who was shooting explosive dust bursts at her through her arm gauntlets. As the White Fang High Leader wrapped her chain whip around Blanka's arm, she tightened her grip on it, causing the electric dust tip of her weapon to pierce through her arm gauntlet and get to her skin. She screamed as was she painfully shocked and was soon knocked out.

"Blanka!" Carmina called out in horror. She turned to Sienna, who rejected her weapon from Blanka's arm, and her glare towards her intensified, but her voice remained cold like dripping venom. "You'll pay for that."

Carmina turned her staff from wind to rock, and as she spun her staff around her she threw several newly formed rocks at Sienna. She barely dodged them all, and she tried to get her whip around Carmina's arm, but she foresaw her attack and backflipped twice to avoid it. She did the same tactic again, only this time, she switched the staff to fire and set the rocks ablaze with fire dust. Sienna managed to dodge most of them, save for one. She was hit in the gut with one of them and stumbled backwards, barely keeping her balance. Seeing that she was too close to Carmina to use her whip again, she wrapped her whip around her arm and decided to fight with her hands.

As Sienna tried to punch Carmina, she dodged her every move, first by side stepping twice, and then ducking to avoid the one aimed at her head. The camera switched to Ayress's aura flickering in a purple glow as Maura repetitively slashed at her. Once she kicked the dark colored huntress in the gut, her aura shattered and was knocked out.

"We've almost got them!" Maura exclaimed while smiling. "Just one left!"

"You will never best us!" Sienna declared.

* * *

Sometime later, team JNPR plus Ruby joined Edom and Gliss at the dinner table. One of the couches was scooted up to the table because there weren't enough chairs. On that green couch were Ruby, Nora and Ren. From Ruby's right, Edom sat at the head of the table. To his right was Gliss. To her right was Pyrrha, now wearing her mask. To her right at the other end of the table was Jaune. All sat with bowls of chili in front of them and varying beverages. Most were drinking hot apple cider, but Ruby was drinking warm milk and Pyrrha had a glass of water as well.

"Sorry, there's not really enough chairs here." Edom stated. "We don't have company very often."

"It's alright." Ruby said. "Your couch is surprisingly comfortable."

She took a sip of warm milk as Edom responded, "Thank you."

"Oh, and um, by the way, I have good news to share." she added.

"Really? What is it?"

Ruby told them about Eric Green, the mayor-turned-librarian who didn't hate Pyrrha.

"No way!" Gliss exclaimed. "That's amazing!"

"Hmm..." Edom mused to himself for a brief moment. "I wonder if I could convince him to babysit or look after Gliss."

"We would help, but my team is going to depart after sunrise tomorrow." Jaune stated.

"Your team? Aren't they your friends?" Gliss asked.

"Well, most of them. One of them is..." He noticed Nora's glare. "...still mad at me."

"And why is Ms. Valkyrie angry with you?"

The knight sighed. "Can you keep a few secrets?"

"We're already keeping major secrets." Edom answered. "A few more can't hurt."

"Okay... Well..." He hesitated, feeling a pang of guilt stir. "I'm no real hero. I forged transcripts to get into Beacon Academy, stole money to pay for tuition and kept a secret about a foe's true power."

Gliss hung her mouth wide open. Her father was understandably shocked. "Oh... That would do it."

"He never gave us an explanation as to why he forged transcripts either." Nora added after taking a sip of cocoa. "He could've got training outside primary combat school but he didn't."

There was a moment of silence as everyone silently ate or drank. Eventually, Edom broke the silence. "So why did you forge transcripts?"

"Well... The exact moment and reason I chose to do it... It's a long story. Pyrrha already knows some of the details, but I'd say it's about time you all learn the truth. It doesn't start with me however. It starts with a man named Douglas Arc. He was my paternal grandfather, and an amazing huntsman. He was incredibly skilled, so much so that he never got injured, or so they say. Women loved him, men envied him. Overall, he was a great man. However, he had one major problem in life- he was a gambler. At first, it wasn't much of a problem because he had so much money from his career and he had good luck. Maybe he actually had rabbit's foot or something. I don't really know. Unfortunately, after many years, his luck ran out. But with his gambling addiction, he not only lost all of his money- he drowned in debt. Upon learning that he had lost lots of money several years ago, his oldest child, my aunt Crimson- had to force him into living with her to prevent debt from accumulating into an absurdly large amount. Unfortunately, it was too late- he had accumulated 125 million Lien in debt.

"After Douglas had stopped gambling, Crimson forced him back into active huntsman duty to pay for it. However, she forgot to take into account that he had been off the battlefield for several years. As a result, he died on his first mission back. Upon his death Crimson and Roux, my father, agreed to decide the debt in half, so both of them would pay 62,500,000 each. Crimson was fortunate, as she won a 70 million Lien lottery. She paid off her portion of the Lien, but instead of helping out with the debt even more, she abandoned her family and chose to keep the surplus money for herself and her daughters. Roux was angry with her, accused her of betraying her family and started to blame her for their father's death. Crimson denied his accusations and said that he deserved it. As a result, they got into a huge argument and a rift has formed between them. My mom and dad, as well as my sisters, haven't seen Crimson in many years."

"How long ago did this happen?" Pyrrha asked.

"Douglas's death, and the debt that came with it, happened ten years ago. This was about a month before Amethyst, the youngest of my seven sisters, was born."

Ruby looked at him curiously. "You have seven sisters?"

"I do. They are from oldest to youngest; Rouge, Tangerine, Acacia, Emerald, Azura, Indigo, and Amethyst. I am wedged in between Acacia and Emerald. Also note that Emerald Arc is not to be confused with Emerald Sustrai. Anyway, back on track. Crimson abandoned her brother and the rest of us, big family rift, et cetera. According to Saphron, one of Crimson's daughters, Crimson left on a mission a long time ago and never came back, leaving her fate unknown. Nonetheless, as a result of that huge debt on Roux's shoulders, he could not send all of those who wanted to go to a huntsman academy there. Me, Rouge, Tangerine, and Azura all wanted to be hunters. But with the debt, only the eldest child, Rouge, was allowed to go to primary combat school, get private lessons and legitimately enter a huntsman academy. Tangerine, however, was undeterred. At the age of twelve, she started to learn combat from friends like Yang, local teachers and from watching fighters on the street."

"So why didn't you follow in her footsteps?" Ren asked.

"Because I wasn't as smart as she was."

"So your decision to forge transcripts was done on impulse." Ruby concluded.

"Kinda sorta, but not really." Jaune answered. "I had dreamed about being a huntsman for years. But I never had a chance. As a result of the debt, everyone eighteen years or older living in the Arc family home was required to get some kind of job to contribute to paying off the debt. Before Shade, Rouge started out as a waitress. During her days at the Academy, she became a fashion model and eventually a huntress. Tangerine became a vigilante while working towards becoming a huntress. Acacia wanted to be a singer but was discouraged and became a chef instead. And after the age was lowered to sixteen, my younger sister Emerald became a messenger several weeks after I returned home from Beacon. I was exempt from this rule due to the laborious nature of my punishment for forging transcripts."

"So what does all this have to do with forging transcripts?" Nora asked impatiently.

"I was getting to that. Roughly a month and a half before Beacon's last school year started, Acacia turned eighteen years old on July 14th, 78 AGW. The day after, she started her job as a chef. She was working the afternoon and the evening shift for the first three days. When she joined us for family dinner on the fourth day, mother asked her how her job was going. Acacia lied and said she was fine. Everyone believed her. Except for me and Azura, that is."

Pyrrha scratched her head. "Wouldn't Azura have said something with her lie detecting semblance?"

"Normally yes, but Acacia was sitting next to her and squeezed her wrist to prevent her from saying anything. Azura did not press the issue further, but from the way Acacia spoke and her eyes sunken, I knew she was lying. After dinner was over, I decided to speak to her privately. Upon entering her chambers and asking her about the truth, she immediately sobbed. She confided to me that she absolutely hated her job, that she felt like she wasn't any good at it and that she feared she would be stuck in the kitchen forever. I asked her what to do to avoid ending up the same situation she was in, and she gave me this advice, 'Don't be like me. Don't be a coward. Follow your dreams, no matter what.'

"I wanted to go to a huntsman academy, but with no combat skills, it would be impossible to get in. Or so it seemed. After thinking to myself in my room, I decided to heed Acacia's advice. Although in retrospect, I probably took it too far; First, I went underground, into the dark and I forged transcripts with help from a shady criminal named Crnobog, who was later caught by Tangerine. From there, I laid out a plan- to leave the home without telling anyone and attend Beacon for four years, stay in Vale during the summer, and return home as a stronger man than I originally started. After realizing I'd need money to pay for tuition, I stole a briefcase of 100,000 Lien from a wealthy businessman who left his case unattended. I will admit, I feel bad about the thievery, and maybe, to a small extent, the forgery. Although my plan did not go as intended. Azura found me as I was packing my bags, and I had to explain the forgery to everyone. I told my parents about the theft, but not my sisters. So I packed my bags and left for Beacon with high hopes, never thinking that my past would come back to haunt me."

Nora raised an eyebrow. "So you did this just to avoid being stuck in a job you hated?"

"Pretty much." He looked away sadly, his spoon hanging above his bowl with his fingers. "Go ahead, yell at me all you want. I deserve it."

For a moment, she was silent. Then she said, "You're still an idiot, Jaune."

Jaune sighed as the meal continued, a somber silence washing over them as almost everyone continued eating. Everyone except for Jaune, who put his spoon back in the bowl and hung his head in sorrow.

* * *

As the meal continued in silence, the huntresses and the faunus leaders duel raged on not too far from Mistral city. With Maza seemingly unconscious, and Blanka and Ayress knocked out, Carmina was the only huntress fighting the White Fang leaders.

"You will never best us!" Sienna declared.

"You won't prevail." Carmina stated.

"I hate to break it to you, but there's now two of us, and one of you."

"You underestimate my ability, as a leader and a huntress."

Maura smirked. "You're bluffing."

Carmina inhaled deeply through her mouth and exhaled to prevent her opponents from seeing the nervous look on her face. She was right, but she chose to glare at the faunus ladies and sought to press on. Suddenly, a rumble was heard and felt by all, shaking them. Although none of them saw it, bolts of black energy flashed slightly above the ground and disappeared as fast as they appeared. Ayress, Blanka, and Maza, who had previously been out, were now jolted awake by the rumbling earth.

"What was that?!" Blanka asked in fear.

"I don't know. But we're awake now, and we're going to beat those two ladies."

 _Uh oh._ they both thought.

A brief montage of Blanka shooting at both of them, Ayress using her fire dust mace against them and Carmina firing all her dusts back to back was shown. Then Sienna was stumbling at the edge, and falling, just barely holding on to it with her hands. Ayress fired another wave of dust, sending Maura towards her as she tried to pull herself up. As Maura tumbled into Sienna, she was hanging on to the edge of the cliff with her right hand. With her left hand, she held onto Sienna.

"Ayress! We're not trying to kill them!" Carmina scolded.

"Oh. My bad." Ayress responded.

The three huntresses quickly approached them at the edge of the cliff, ready to reel them in.

"This is bad. There's no way I can pull us both back up. Otherwise they'll get both of us and all will be lost. You know what must be done." A tear slid down Maura's cheek. "I'm sorry."

"Maura!" She let go, and Sienna began to fall. "Ahh!"

Sienna was shown falling back first into the woods below as Maura disappeared from her sight. She tried to get her whip unchained from her arm, but was having difficultly doing so. She continued to fall further, seeing the world flash by her.

 _How can I save her if I can't save myself?_ she asked silently as she continued falling.

As Maura pulled herself up, she was greeted with glares from Carmina, Blanka and Ayress.

"Hands in the air!" Blanka ordered. "You have nowhere to run!"

"By the authority of team CUBB, you're under arrest!" Carmina took her hands behind her back and handcuffed her. "You stand accused of terrorizing a primary combat school, aiding and abiding criminals, running from the law and co-leading the destruction of the Argus Harbor Max Security Prison." The leader gave her a disgusted look. "How do you plead?"

"I'm not guilty." Maura answered. As she spoke, Maza was shown hiding behind a tree with a slightly worried look on her face. "Please, don't turn me in! I'm innocent, I tell you, innocent!"

Ayress grabbed onto Maura's arms. "Yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge, Greenie."

"That wasn't me! It wasn't, I swear!"

Blanka smiled. "I can't believe we actually found her."

"We're going to be rich!" Ayress shouted in glee.

"More importantly, we've finally caught the most dangerous woman in Mistral." Carmina stated. She hoisted their bounty on top of her left shoulder. "Let's get her to the Catacomb Correctional Facility."

Maura looked up in horror. "No, not the Catacombs! Not the Catacombs! Please, no!"

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you." Blanka recited.

"We better get going." Carmina stated. She looked around. "Wait, where's Maza?" Maza came out from her hiding place. "Oh, there you are. We have everyone. Team CUBB, move out!"

The quartet of huntresses walked with their prisoner in tow. As Carmina took the lead, her younger sister Blanka stood by her left to make sure their prisoner didn't escape. Ayress and Maza stood a few feet behind them, the former smirking. Maza slowed down a little and looked away from her friends, no one seeing the troubled look on her face.


	65. If I Got Locked Away

Author's Notes:

-Happy new year everyone! And happy new decade! I still can't believe it's 2020. I wonder if people are still going to make 20/20 vision jokes... Anyway, I'm also happy to report that this chapter shouldn't be quite as heartbreaking as the last new year's day chapter. There's still sadness, but it's an improvement.

-And to Guest- You have to bear in mind, I wrote chapter two long before the book _After the Fall_ was published. (RWBY's Fandom Wiki page states that it was published on June 25th, 2019.) And even though Roy Stallion is dead in canon (welp) and his teammates are missing (and possibly dead), for story purposes, they're all alive and back in Vacuo. Whether that will actually be relevant to the story itself remains to be seen.

-Also, wow, this is the longest chapter yet. There's a lot of information to unpack here. Hope you enjoy!

Now then, without further delay, let's begin.

* * *

The sunset had already set and the sky was slowly becoming darker. Jaune and 'Rouge' made their way towards the stadium to practice and refine their skills. Following Edom's instructions, they eventually found the open air coliseum- which was mostly intact save for a few structures that were crumbling, but for the most part, it was in great shape. There were a few people in the stadium, watching the fights unfold below. Nearby the arena there was a big TV screen that had a touch screen timer preset for an hour that had yet to start.

"What's with the clock?" Jaune asked.

"It's a timer." a policeman standing behind them answered. The two turned around to see him and another guy who was not in uniform. "Since many huntsmen trainees and other fighters like to use the stadium, they are encouraged to be considerate and take the arena for a maximum of one hour. Sometimes if there's nobody there you can get away with two or more, but that's pushing it."

"I see." 'Rouge' spoke. "We better get started then."

With her black-gloved hand, she touched the start button and she went into the arena. Jaune followed her into the arena, which was about as big a football field. As Jaune took out Crocea Mors, the nouveau femme fatale took out her recently acquired weapon- an ice dust convertible sword-gun, which she had dubbed Froidcoeur.

As the faux fashion model held Froidcoeur in its sword form, she breathed and felt like she was in the spotlight again, just like Pyrrha once was.

 _How far has Pyrrha gone?_ the masked heroine secretly thought to herself.

The sound of Jaune's battle cry brought her to reality. She quickly threw a wave of ice dust at him, yet she was not surprised as Jaune easily dodged her attack. The knight crept in towards the masked heroine and she pushed him back with another ice wave. As he approached her, she stood still and then swung her sword towards him only for him to counter with his own.

As their swords clashed against each other, 'Rouge' spoke, "I will admit, you've improved from your last duel."

Jaune asked her, "It's not enough, is it?"

She didn't answer him. Instead, she backflipped to the wall. Her feet met the wall as she knelt in and propelled herself forward with a jump. As she dashed towards him, she threw an ice wave at Jaune, causing him to go airborne and land on the ground, skidding back. As she reached him, she swung her sword down on him, but he blocked it in time with his shield. She brought her sword down further, trying to get him to surrender, but he twisted his legs around hers and turned, bringing her tumbling to the ground.

"You play dirty!" 'Rouge' exclaimed.

"So do you!" Jaune retorted.

The faux fashion model smirked. "Touché."

She rolled away and threw an ice wave at his feet, freezing the lower part of his right leg. He tried to get free, but it was no use. 'Rouge' charged towards him and punched him the chest, sending him flying. He hit the wall back-first and fell to the ground. The audience made 'Oohs' as he got hurt.

"That's gotta hurt." one man said.

"Is that all you got?!" 'Rouge' asked.

Jaune stood up with a smirk. "You ain't seen nothing yet."

The two charged towards each other once again.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Mistral, the night had already fallen over the land as team CUBB traveled down the mountain with their prisoner. From the entrance to the first level of the city, they could see the streets lit up by lamps. As the heroines entered the city, two civilians, both girls, noticed that Maura Celandine was tied up, gagged and hoisted on Carmina's left shoulder.

"Is that... Maura Celandine?" one of them asked.

"She's been captured!" another answered.

A chorus of voices, both male and female, cheered in jubilation.

"Hooray!"

"Wahoo!

"Yay!"

"Go huntresses!"

"That's team CUBB of Haven Academy!" a little girl pointed out.

"Make way for our heroes!" a little boy quickly added.

Ayress smiled confidently as she took the lead. "Step aside folks, your heroes have arrived."

The Griffin sisters waved to their fans and followers.

"Thank you!" Blanka greeted.

"You're welcome!" Carmina responded.

Maza, lagging behind her teammates, still looked saddened and fearful as she and her teammates went forth, but nobody noticed.

 _This isn't right..._ she thought to herself. _Maura isn't..._

Blanka faintly heard patterns of rapidly ascending and descending notes in the distance. "Do I hear... music?"

Maza looked less tense as the string music hit her ears. Her teammates heard the sound as well. Curious, Blanka followed the sound and her teammates followed suit. The sound led them to a man standing in the middle of the sidewalk with a metal table a few feet to his right. On that table were a few instrument cases in varying sizes and shapes. There were closed cases for a flute, trumpet, guitar, accordion and a marimba. There was also a harmonica as well as an empty viola case. Not too far from the instrument table, the musician stood with his viola and bow in his hands with a small crowd watching him. As he finished playing a fast solo with a slower finish, the audience clapped for him and gave him varying amounts of Lien.

Blanka gave the musician a few Lien. "Ah, VV. Long time no see."

Viola Varga, more commonly referred to by his nickname and stage name of VV (or sometimes Double V), was a Latino-looking man in his mid twenties with brown eyes, tanned skin and black hair. He wore a red charro (or mariachi suit), paired with a black bow-tie and black dress shoes.

"Greetings, ladies." He noted the fugitive on Carmina's shoulders. "I see you have succeeded in tracking down the most dangerous woman in Mistral."

Ayress smiled as she folded her arms. "I'm surprised you didn't join the hunt for her head."

"Oh come now Ayress. Catching criminals isn't important to me. Music, and my family, are what really matters." Another audience member gave him some Lien. "Besides, I knew someone would catch her eventually."

"Do you think you could play us a victory ballad?" Blanka requested.

"Certainly. Any specific instrument?"

She shrugged, smiling. "Surprise me."

"Trumpet it is then. Uno momento, por favor."

He put away his viola and bow and then got out his trumpet. He made sure it was in tune and started to play a happy, upbeat piece that screamed victory. Blanka began to dance to VV's music as most people happily listened to his performance. Some even moved their heads in time with the music. But as everyone else celebrated Maura's capture, Maza's sorrow returned, and her sorrowful eyes met Maura's. Bound and gagged, Maura couldn't say anything, but Maza could.

 _This isn't right._ Maza thought to herself. _Maura isn't guilty._ _I have to do something. But how can I let my teammates know? I don't want to rock the boat, but if I'm right, and Maura is executed, then an innocent life will be lost for no good reason. I have to tell them that Maura is innocent before we reach the Catacombs. But how?_

She wanted to say something, but she remained silent as the musician gave a sudden, powerful ending to his performance. Blanka clapped excitedly while Carmina and Ayress gave him more modest applause. Maza didn't applaud, but luckily, no one noticed. Blanka gave him another tip.

"Thanks for the performance." Carmina stated. "We should probably get going to the Catacombs though. My shoulder's beginning to ache."

"Alright. Goodbye and good luck!"

He continued to play music, this time a sad tune from the harmonica. The quartet moved forward, their prisoner in tow. Maza's troubled look returned.

 _Come on, Maza. Say something!_

* * *

Back in Aquarian, 'Rouge' and Jaune continued their duel. Jaune stood with white aura a few inches above his ankles as his opponent fired wave after wave of dust at him. He dodged them all with ease and his aura slowly crept from his ankles to his knees. Then he went to her in a dash of speed, kicking her in the knee towards wall. She landed back-first into the wall and Jaune transferred the super-charged aura from the lower part of his legs to the upper part of his arms. Before she could catch her breath, Jaune shoved her against the wall, pinning her wrists there.

"Looks I win, Rouge."

She smiled. "You did, but you were lucky, just like you were in your duel against your sister!"

Jaune frowned. "Hey, you congratulated me for that duel!"

"I did, but my point still stands." He exhaled and let her go. The aura around his arms disappeared. 'Rouge' folded her arms, still holding her sword in her right hand. "I could still defeat you easily. Best two out of three!"

The knight smirked. "You're on!"

The second duel began with the masked heroine putting her sword to her side and charging towards Jaune. She gave him a series of punches of to the arms, causing him to drop his sword and shield. As they all hit him, he took a few blows before she tried to kick him. As she continued this, she reviewed her battle plan in her mind.

 _I just have to keep him on his toes. Prevent him from thinking too much._ 'Rouge' thought.

Soon Jaune recovered his weapons and struck at her with her sword, only for her to counter with Froidcouer. She then jumped a few steps back and switched Froidcouer to its gun form. Aiming carefully to avoid a fatal blow, she took a few shoots at him, only for him to dodge with ease.

 _Tangerine taught him well._ Jaune came rushing in with aura surrounding his feet. _Perhaps even too well._

She quickly dodged his advances and his series of kicks. He then smirked and pulled her hood down on her, leaving her unable to see. She readjusted her hood and looked for him, only for him to disappear. He was hiding. Where was he? She felt him behind her, and he attempted to grab her wrist, but she dashed forward. It was not enough however, and he grabbed her cloak instead. Her loose crimson locks and gorgeous image was revealed to all.

"Nice try, Jaune, but you can't catch me!"

She swung several ice dust waves at him and the camera zoomed in on the ice dust before transitioning to...

* * *

A waterfall seen from the lowest level of Mistral city. Team CUBB stood in a deserted corner of the city with their prisoner on Carmina's shoulder. To their right was an area the size of a tennis court stone wall, only accessible by a locked stone door. In front of them was a trapdoor that lead to the prison itself.

"The Catacombs." Ayress spoke. "Neither thought I'd have to drag a criminal here."

"Well with the destruction of Argus Harbor, this is the best and most secure prison in the entire kingdom." Blanka stated.

Carmina frowned. "Let's get this over with."

"Wait!" Maza spoke aloud. "This isn't right."

Ayress glared at her, while the Griffin sisters gave her confused looks. Carmina looked towards her with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I don't think we've got the right person. Maura's not guilty!"

The other three members of team CUBB exchanged confused looks before Maura shook off the rope gagging her mouth. She then stated, "She is right. I'm innocent. I was framed by my backstabbing lieutenant Athena Bruna. Why it is that only she can see it, and the rest of you can not?"

"Because you're a liar and you've deceived her." Carmina answered. "But you're not going to deceive the rest of us!"

"This is not what it seems!" Maura protested.

"That's what they all say." Ayress responded.

"It's not what you think. I'm not a criminal. If you turn me in, I'll surely die for crimes that aren't mine."

"But they are yours, so your death would be a blessing."

Maza gasped at Ayress's cruelty, while the Griffin sisters seemed unfazed. "You are blind, all of you." Maura stated. "You believe that I'm guilty, even though I am innocent. If I die for crimes that aren't mine, then all of you shall meet the same fate. You will die at the hands of a vengeful madman blinded by rage."

Ayress scoffed and dismissed her prediction. "Oh please. We'll never be taken alive. We're the best of the best."

"But-!"

She rebound the rope on Maura's mouth, silencing her. The darker one opened the trap door for her teammates. "Come on, girls. Let's go."

The leader quickened her pace, and her sister followed. Maza sighed and walked forward somberly, Ayress trailing her. There was nothing she could do. Her teammates didn't believe her. As they descended into the first level of the prison, they entered in an underground facility with the stairway and first floor made of stone, lit up by torches and artificial lights. They soon reached the end of the staircase, they saw a front desk with a computer and two blue torches on the wall behind it. On both sides of the desk were two different hallways. The bars of cells could faintly be seen in the dim light. At front desk was a police officer, who noticed their arrival.

"Team CUBB? What brings you here?" he asked.

Carmina threw Maura off her shoulder and onto the ground. She groaned in pain as she was tossed onto the floor. "We have found the leader of the Mistralian White Fang."

"Well done, ladies." the officer congratulated. "We'll take her in to be recorded in the system. Guards, take her out of my sight!"

Maura was handcuffed and grabbed by the arms of the guards. As she was dragged down the right hallway, she got her gag off and protested, "But I'm innocent, I tell you! Innocent!"

Maza sadly watched as she was dragged away from them. "Now then, while we gather your cash reward, we will have to prepare evidence for Maura's trial. Since you are the huntresses who caught her, you guys are key witnesses. Would you be willing to testify against her?"

"Of course we will." Carmina answered. "I want to be sure this vile criminal gets what she deserves."

"Excellent." He got out his flashlight, turned it on and motioned for the ladies to follow him. "Come with me then."

The first three members of team CUBB walked forward into the left hallway. Although she was reluctant, Maza trailed behind them, not wanting to be left alone in the darkness. She felt a cold chill creep in, and she really did not like this place. Eventually, they reached a wooden door and entered the office. The officer pulled down the blinds and turned on the lights.

"Ugh. Light hurts... Have to readjust my eyes." He sighed. "That's the one thing that sucks about working down there." He cleared his throat. "Alright, down to business." He looked at the calendar on the wall. "It is... January 21st. We should be able to have her trialed by February 4th. That should give us more than enough time to get your reward, gather evidence and summon a jury. Let's begin."

* * *

As the second duel between 'Rouge' and Jaune was shown, the duel ended with 'Rouge' placing her heel on Jaune's back.

She smirked. "I win."

"Don't get cocky yet, Rouge!" She got her foot off him. "We got one more duel to go!"

The screen split into two vertical halves; one with a white background behind Jaune on the right, and one with a red background behind Pyrrha on the other. The halves were separated by blue lightning.

A montage began with 'Rouge' firing a wave of dust at Jaune, only for him to dodge, followed by Jaune shielding himself from the ice dust, and Jaune dodging his opponent's kicks and punches. The montage ended with the two grinding swords against the other, both glaring at each other. A buzzing sound heard and the fighters stopped apply pressure to their swords, letting them down. The alarm was going off, and their time was up.

"Well, looks like our time's up." 'Rouge' spoke. "Good duel, Jaune. You've done a good job."

"I would say we both did well."

The masked heroine looked around. "Yeah, we did."

The scene transitioned to 'Rouge' and Jaune walking away from the coliseum. The masked heroine was a few steps ahead of her knight. Even with her hood up and her face obscured by it, Jaune could tell by her slight head-hanging that she was sad. He took her hand in his. She suddenly stopped.

"Rouge?" Jaune asked. She took her hand away from his. "Rouge?" He looked around to see if anyone was around. "Pyrrha?" She blinked sadly as she heard her real name be mentioned. "What's the matter?"

"Jaune... I feel so scared. I'm worried about losing myself even more. I feel like I have to act so differently from how Pyrrha did. No matter who I am, I'm still faking it."

"Is that why you haven't been very affectionate in the public eye?"

"Yeah, I mean, I'm supposed to play the role of a huntress and you're a trainee. I fear people would get suspicious if they saw us together as a couple."

"I don't think they'd be too concerned. I mean, we're both eighteen and you're pretending to be twenty to twenty one."

"It's not the fake age gap that concerns me. It's the teacher-student relationship that I fear would ring alarm bells. If it was Pyrrha, it wouldn't be a problem. But... Pyrrha Nikos is long gone and now... she's nothing more than a distant memory..."

"But, you are..." Jaune began.

"I don't know who I am." The masked heroine quickly added. "Part of me just wants to forget that Pyrrha Nikos ever existed."

"Pyr... Rouge." Jaune took her hands. "I know you're trying to protect yourself, and by extension the rest of us. But you can't run forever."

"I can try." She sighed and took her hands away. "How did it ever come to this? Running away from one threat, chasing after another..." She lifted her hood down. "Losing everything... including myself..." 'Rouge' ruefully brought her hand to her red mask- the silver markings on it even more visible.

"That's not true! You still have your friends!" Jaune exclaimed.

"That is true... And I still have you." She threw her arms around him. "You're one of the few people that ever looked at Pyrrha as a normal person. After she barely survived her last duel with Cinder, she was no longer the Invincible Girl, but she already wasn't the Invincible Girl. The destiny she was promised, ripped away from her... Lost..."

"Rouge, can I ask you something?" She sadly nodded yes. "Why did Pyrrha chose to challenge Cinder in the first place?"

"Well..." Pyrrha reverted back to her normal voice, speaking softly. "I've thought about it lot over the last few weeks, or perhaps even months. And if I be completely honest, part of it was for the sake of power. I was confused, angry and to a small extent, jealous. Another part was because I thought she had to be stopped to save the city. I now realize that I didn't have to face her. Part of me wishes that I hadn't. If I had just looked the other way, if I stayed with you... We wouldn't even be in this situation right now." Jaune remained silent, not knowing what to say. She turned away from him. "I fear that I'm trying to do the impossible, and that I will be imprisoned, killed or worse because of this quest in one way or another. And what if you and our other friends meet that same fate as well?" She looked back at him. "We're on the verge of losing everything... So, let me ask you this; If I got locked away, and we lost it all today, tell me honestly- would you still love the same?"

"Yes, I would. You have no idea how incredibly stupid I felt, and to an extent, still feel, about not realizing that I loved you earlier. And if you were locked away, I would fight every guard and then some just to reach you."

She blinked. "You'd really risk everything to save me?"

"I would. You mean everything to me. I lost you once, twice if you don't the dissolving of team JNPR, and I never want to lose you again." He smiled, giving a chuckle. "I suppose that's the one thing that isn't lost. Our love for each other..."

The red-haired warrior faintly smiled. "Maybe we haven't lost everything."

"Mon amour..." He gently kissed the masked heroine. His love melted the ice-cold heart that she tried to put up. Unable to resist, she threw his arms around him as he cupped her face, his fingertips touching the mask she wore. "Ma belle femme fatale..." He whispered into her ear. "I love you, Pyrrha."

The two stood in sweet silence for a moment. The two broke apart and turned around, seeing a woman with garnet red hair in a bob cut, red eyes, pale skin, and a graceful, slender figure. She wore a long, floor length red wine colored dress. On her right index finger was a gold ring with a princess-cut garnet gemstone. Around her left shoulder strap was a pin with the horse emblem of the Trojan Alliance. Behind her were four bodyguards, three male and one female.

Jaune nervously looked around. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to see you kiss, which might I add, was adorable." the red haired woman spoke. She turned to the masked heroine. "Rouge Gorlois, I believe?"

"That would be me." 'Rouge' spoke in her finest French accent. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes, I just wanted to say that I saw your fight at the coliseum and you were really good out there." She got a pen and notepad. "Oh, and I would like your autograph."

"Why certainly. Who do I make it out to?"

"Garnet Scarlatti."

'Rouge' wrote as Jaune asked, "Scarlatti? As in mayor Scarlatti?"

The mayor of Aquarian smirked. "The one and only. Mayor of this fine city and loyal member of the Trojan Alliance."

'Rouge' forced herself to continue smiling as she finished signing the paper. "Here you go."

Garnet received her autograph. "Thank you, and have a good night!"

"You too!" 'Rouge' said back.

"Good night!" Jaune said to them.

Both groups walked away from each other, and as soon as 'Rouge' and Jaune were out of earshot, the former spoke, "Phew. That was close."

"No kidding. You did write Rouge Gorlois and not Pyrrha Nikos right?"

"I did. Hopefully, she won't be smart enough to figure it out." She added in her normal voice, "I hope."

* * *

Meanwhile, the spirit of Ozpin teleported to the Blossom Plaza in Zephyros. In the dead of night, it felt colder than ever. The cherry tree had lost its petals and the city itself, its people and nature, were in slumber.

 _Zephyros. The village of flowers. The closest place to Oscar's farm I could get to. It's a pity that spirits can only teleport to places they were in their lifetime. Or in my case,_ all _of my lifetimes._ He sighed. _One would think by now that I've roamed every inch of this planet. But alas, this is not the case._ He sighed. _I better get moving. I have a long way to go._ _From here, it's another 214 miles to Oscar's farm. Not the longest distance I've walked to find my successor, but this still won't be fun._

Ozpin started the trek through the plaza and made his way to the train station. From there, he walked along a dirt path with only the shattered moon to keep him company. The road he walked was a very lonely one, with no end in sight.

 _214 miles..._ an inquiring voice spoke. _Assuming 10 miles a day, it'll be... roughly three weeks to get there._

 _But that's assuming no stops._ the hermit replied.

 _Why would he stop?_ the drunkard asked. _As he's in spirit form, he can't tire, need food or water, nor have to take bathroom breaks. He could just keep walking until he gets there._

 _Or he could just run there._ said the guy who was eaten by Grimm. _It would be faster._

 _But running blindly when he doesn't know the entire path isn't a good idea._ the second guy responded.

 _He's right, ya know._ said the guy who had to wait over two years.

 _Do you have to rub it in?_ asked his successor.

Ozpin sighed. It was going to a long night and a long hike.

* * *

The next day in Aquarian, the quintet had their bags packed and were about to leave Edom's cottage. Team JNPR stood in the living room/kitchen/dining area while Ruby was sitting on the couch, reading one of the two books she found at the library. She was a few pages in, indicated by a green slip of paper acting as a bookmark.

"Do you really have to go?" Gliss asked sadly.

"Sadly, we do." Ruby put the book into her backpack and stood up. "But don't worry. Perhaps we'll be back someday." She smiled. "Bye Edom, bye Gliss. We wish you nothing but the best!"

"Who knows?" Nora smirked wickedly. "If we ever come back here, maybe we'll break Scarlatti's legs."

"Let's not get too carried away." Ren reminded her. He turned to the residents of the cottage. "I hope things get better for you guys. Goodbye, and thanks for helping us in our time of need."

"Thanks again for helping us." Jaune said. "I know it's not likely that the CCT will be restored anytime soon, but you think I can get your number just in case?"

"Sure." Edom answered. He typed in his number and contact info into Jaune's scroll.

Jaune smiled. "Thank you. Goodbye and good luck. With everything."

Pyrrha knelt to Gliss and hugged her. "Goodbye Gliss."

Gliss returned her hug. "Bye, Pyrrha. Stay safe and good luck."

After breaking the hug, Pyrrha turned to the former business owner. "Goodbye Edom. If for any reason we find ourselves here again, we know someone who can help us."

"No problem. I wish you best of luck with your travels and mission."

The red-haired woman breathed in and smiled. "Thank you."

Putting on her mask once again, 'Rouge' and her 'trainees' stepped out of Edom's cottage and went out into the cobblestone streets of Old Aquarian. They were seen walking in New Aquarian. They soon made their way to the gate on the opposite side from where they entered.

As they left the city, 'Rouge' thought to herself, _Will this mask really be able to hide Pyrrha forever? Or will everything catch up to me?  
_

* * *

Several hours later, well after their departure, Garnet sat at her desk in her office facing towards the door. Garnet's desk consisted of brown wooden desk with a computer and a wireless mouse. To her left were stacks of papers and letters. By her feet on the left side in front of the drawers were three different bins- trash, recycle, and burn. On the right side of the desk was a half full coffee mug with the words _Got Coffee?_ on the side. A few feet from the mug was the paper with Rouge Gorlois's signature. Behind the desk was a painted portrait of Garnet Scarlatti folding her arms with a smirk on her face.

In the lower left corner of the room there was also a busted paper shatter that had not been replaced or disposed of. In the upper left corner there was a bookshelf with several books. There were so many books that it was actually overflowing. On her right in the middle of the wall was a roaring fireplace. To the right of the fireplace was a tray of logs. In front of the door about fifteen feet from each other, two red couches stood parallel to each other. On the left couch were two huntsmen, one of which was reading a book. On the right side were a huntsman and huntress. The huntsman was reading a magazine as huntress stood by with her weapon, a fire dust sword at the ready.

A knock on the door was heard. "Come in." Garnet answered.

The second guard who was interrogating Jaune and his teammates walked into the room and everyone had their attention on him. The book and magazine were put down and the huntsmen and huntress stood up. The guard spoke, "Ms. Scarlatti. I have news to report. Just yesterday, a group of five warriors entered this city during my guard shift. They consisted of a team of semi-pros from Beacon and a huntress from Haven named Rouge Gorlois. Normally I would not give reports as to who enters or leaves the city, but something seemed very suspicious."

The mayor raised an eyebrow. "Suspicious? What could be bad about Rouge? She's a very impressive fighter and she was nice enough to give me an autograph."

"Well, the unfortunate reality is that she's a fake."

Scarlatti's bodyguards were visibly shocked, but only one of them gasped in shock as Garnet gasped. "A fake?! But how can this be?"

"When Rouge and her friends went through the gates, something seemed off to me. She was wearing a mask, looked a lot like Pyrrha Nikos and she spoke a lot of statements."

"Explain."

"For starters, she claimed that she was a member of team LUNR, which lost all of its members over the course of several years. She said her teammates were Luna, Urdina, and Nubia. She also said that her team didn't participate in any Vytal Festival Tournaments due to missing members. I know that Haven's teams stick together no matter what, but what seemed suspicious was that she only gave first names and not last. She also claimed she found her trainees by saving them from the Grimm and a Grimm dragon. I was skeptical about the dragon, but I was able to find one stone picture of it, so she might not have been lying there, but her team really didn't sit well with me.

"So I did some research and reviewed over all the footage of the last Vytal Festival Tournament. Haven Academy had all their teams participate in the tournament last year, where Rouge said she didn't because she had no teammates. Also, team LUNR of Haven doesn't really exist. The closest was team of LUNA of Shade, who graduated three years ago. Also, team LUNA's members are as follows; Luna Diaz, Urdina Morris, Nubia Nyx, and Rouge Arc. Those first three names were the exact same as the names Rouge Gorlois mentioned. This _can't_ be a coincidence. Something is very fishy here."

"Who else was present with Gorlois?"

"Three members of team JNPR and one member of team RWBY. In each respective group, they are Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren and Ruby Rose."

Her eyebrows raised in fear. "No... it... it can't be... Unless..." She turned to the painting on the wall and moved it aside, revealing a safe with a pass code. "There's only one way to be sure." The mayor punched in a nine digit combination and the safe door opened. Inside was a picture of Pyrrha Nikos that had her signature on it. She placed it on her desk next to Rouge Gorlois's signature and carefully examined them. Upon careful examination, she realized that they were both written similarly and the r's, i's, o's, and s's were all the same. Garnet gasped once again. "It's true..." She spoke horrified. "Rouge Gorlois and Pyrrha Nikos are one and the same!"


	66. Exit Light, Enter Night

There was complete silence in Scarlatti's office.

"I can't believe this. How could I have been so easily duped?!" Garnet spoke to no one in particular. She took the signed photo of Pyrrha Nikos and put it back into the safe before sighing heavily.

"So, uh, Ms. Scarlatti..." the guard began. "What are we to do about this?"

She turned back to him. "I'm calling for a town meeting immediately. We need to recruit the biggest squad possible to take that phony and her friends down!"

The scene transitioned to a bell being rung. The camera zoomed in on a bell tower nearby the old-new border, where the modern part of the city and the older part of the city met. A few feet from the bell tower was a lush green area with a wooden stage. On the wooden stage was a podium and a blue curtain to hide the presenting speaker behind. As Garnet's huntsmen guards set up chairs in the park for people to sit in, the huntress was on the lookout for suspicious people and activity.

Elsewhere, the guard was driving a horse carriage to tell everyone about the meeting.

"Town meeting!" he examined. "Town meeting! Town meeting tonight! Prospect Garden!"

Edom came out of his house with Gliss in his arms as he heard this. "A town meeting?"

Gliss looked at him fearfully. "What's this about?"

"I don't know," he answered. "but I have a bad feeling about this."

"Town meeting tonight!" could still faintly be heard.

The former business owner set his daughter down on her feet and held her hand as they made their way to Prospect Garden. By the time they did, there were already hundreds, if not thousands of people sitting or standing and waiting for their leader. Since all the chairs had been taken by the time they got there, Edom lifted Gliss so that she could sit atop his shoulders. Gliss looked around to see Scarlatti, but did not find her anywhere in sight.

"Where's Mayor Meanie-face?" Gliss asked her father in a whisper.

"I don't know. She's probably still getting ready."

The crowd zoomed out, showing them on the left side facing the stage.

* * *

Meanwhile in Vale, an unconscious Glydna was shown lying in a hospital bed with a white sheet draped over her. A worried Qrow sat by her side on a chair.

 _Should I leave her?_ he asked herself. _She might recover if I left her. I know I'm a bad luck charm, but I have a bad feeling that whatever happened here wasn't merely the result of stress and fatigue from endless toiling. I know I need to find Ruby, but I need to know the truth. I need to be sure she's okay... Come on, Glydna... Please... wake up..._ He stood up, took a few steps back and went to the window. Qrow looked at himself in the dark tinted glass. _If only I could have been here sooner. No matter what I do, I'm failing everyone. I'm failing Tai, I'm failing Yang, I'm failing Ruby and team JNPR, and even..._

A groan was heard and Glydna began to stir from her slumber. Qrow dashed back to her with relief. "Glydna! Thank goodness!"

"Oh... My head..." She looked at her comrade with a look of surprise. "Qrow, what are you doing here?"

A flashback began to show over Qrow's answer. Qrow was shown in bird form flying over the city. From the ground, he saw Glydna stumbling around, a purple slash mark visible on her stomach. She put her arm to a nearby wall ruin to steady herself, only to fall unconscious. Qrow flew down and turned back to human form. He was shown running through the streets with Glydna in his arms.

"I was on my way to find Ruby, but when I saw you fall unconscious, I had to do something. You looked injured, and I didn't think it was a mere injury. I dashed down and dragged you to Everbright hospital as fast as I could. I waited for what felt like an eternity- but in reality was only an hour and thirty minutes. According to what the doctors told me, they found venom in your veins. They drained it and said you were lucky to have lived that long with all the stress on your body. You can't overexert yourself Glydna."

"But aren't you doing the same?" Glydna folded her arms as she struck a nerve in Qrow. "Spreading yourself too thin? Trying to do everything but it's never enough?"

The unlucky huntsman sighed. "You're right. It seems we're both guilty of this. But you need to rest, even if be only for a day or two."

She yielded with a deep sigh. "Fine."

"Also, while I'm here, I have a few questions for you. First off, have you seen Ruby and team JNPR?"

"I did, I saw them here a few weeks ago. They had saved the city from burning down to the ground and caught the man responsible for the arson; Charles Mustard."

Qrow looked at her like she had two heads. "Really? Why him, of all people?"

"He lost his sanity since the Fall of Beacon and was slowly swallowed by rage. He blamed Pyrrha for Penny's demise and the state of affairs we're in. On New Year's, the five caught him and decided to take him to the nearest prison in Sumire. Assuming they didn't change their minds and decided to execute him that is."

He stayed silent for a moment. "Alright. Second- how did you get poisoned?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

"Ok, third- what was the last thing you remember before falling unconscious?"

Glydna thought to herself. "Hmm... I saw a man. He had pale skin, gold eyes and brown hair in a braid. Other than that, I don't recall much else of his appearance. He asked me where Ruby was and in my tired haze, I told him Sumire. I dozed off for a moment and felt a sting in the gut. I had no idea what it was."

Qrow looked back at the list of descriptions of the scorpion man that Yang gave to him before his departure. "He was here!"

She looked at him wearily. "Who?"

"The scorpion man. The same guy who interrogated Yang and is after Ruby! I have to get to Sumire, and fast. I just hope that he hasn't gotten there first."

* * *

Unfortunately, they had no idea how wrong they were. Said scorpion man was well past the ruins of Sumire, and in the modern part of Aquarian. Tyrian was shown looking at a wanted poster of Pyrrha as the bell continued to ring.

He asked the nearest person, "Where's that sound coming from?"

"Mayor Scarlatti is having a town meeting in the Prospect Garden." answered a man. "We better get going then."

The scorpion raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you think that I would waste my time there?"

"You must. Everyone who is able to attend must go. Come now, lest you wish to be interrogated by police officers to no end."

Tyrian internally groaned. _This is probably a waste of my time, but if I leave, I'll look suspicious._ He sighed silently. _Looks like I have to play along._

Eventually, after walking for who knows how long, he entered the crowd, right side facing the stage. Shortly after he arrived, Garnet stepped onto the stage and went towards the podium in the stage's center. She pressed her index finger to the mic, testing it.

"Testing, testing. Testing, one, two, three. Alright." She cleared her throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice. Normally I would not do such things, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I have recently discovered some shocking and terrifying news. Just last night, I ran into a woman named Rouge Gorlois. At first glance, she seemed like a nice woman, a bonafide huntress, someone worthy of good fortune. But just less than an hour ago, upon further examination, I realized that not everything was what it seemed to be. I realized that she is actually a liar because Rouge Gorlois is none other than the 'Metalbending Murderess', Pyrrha Nikos."

The crowd gasped in horror. Then they started to murmur amongst themselves. Gliss was too terrified to gasp or say anything, but for a different reason. Edom looked on somberly, but no one noticed their expressions nor cared enough to say anything. Tyrian was not fazed.

"I know. It hurts me to realize and admit that all of us have been deceived. At first, I didn't want to believe it, but when the light came in, the truth was revealed. Rouge Gorlois, aka Pyrrha Nikos, pulled the wool over all our eyes and got away with it! Just as she got away with murder! And I'm afraid it only gets worse from there. As Pyrrha continues her villainous ways, she is not traveling alone. She is accompanied by four other semi-pro huntsmen and huntresses. Three of them are her teammates, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. The last one is the leader of what was once team RWBY, a girl named Ruby Rose. These four are in accomplice with the murderess and are bringing terror and misfortune to all as they continue their travels.

"Which is why I'm having this town meeting today. It is clear now that our efforts to stop Pyrrha have not been enough. Therefore, I am asking those brave enough and willing to fight for justice to pursue a very difficult mission. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find Pyrrha Nikos and her friends. Once you do, you must slay the 'Metalbending Murderess' and bring her head back here as proof that she has been slayed." Gliss gulped in fear as Edom stood there, frozen in fear. "As for her friends, they must be brought down by any means necessary. And one more thing I should mention; because stopping Pyrrha Nikos has never been more important, I'm increasing the bounty on her head. Whoever succeeds in slaying the 'Metalbending Murderess' will be rewarded 50,000 Lien."

The crowd roared and cheered in approval. Gliss began to feel sick as Edom was further swallowed by dread. Tyrian was intrigued.

 _Hmm. Maybe this meeting wasn't a waste of time after all..._ the scorpion faunus thought to himself.

"For this task, I am asking that we have at least ten hunters or other skilled combatants be our core members of this squad. Noncombatants who wish to learn how to fight may also join, if you feel brave enough and are willing to take risks. With this in mind, who will join the hunt to set things right?"

"We will." a man spoke.

A group of four huntsmen stood up from the chairs. The first one was a man with pale skin, hazel eyes and curly shoulder-length black hair. He wore gold pants with an open loose-collared gold jacket with no shirt underneath, showing off a six pack. He also wore golden cuff bracelets on each wrist, a long golden necklace with a lotus charm on the end and a red eye gem on his forehead.

The second one had pale skin, green eyes and long red curly hair. He also had a long well-kept beard and mustache. He was very strong and muscular- easily the strongest member of his team. He wore black pants with fur-lined combat boots along with a white sleeveless top with red linings underneath the shoulders. He also wore a grey hood over his head, but not enough to conceal his face.

The third one had gorgeously tanned skin, golden blond hair perfectly in place and beautiful blue eyes. He wore a Greek gold robe with a shoulder strap on his right, exposing part of his toned chest along with a laurel wreath on his head. On his back was a golden colored bow and a quiver full of arrows. He was very handsome, smiling with perfectly white teeth.

And the fourth one was a tall man with tanned skin, and brown eyes with hints of gold. He was bald, but not many people noticed because he wore a khepresh on his head. The khepresh was gold and had blue and had red feathers to it. On the side of the headdress were small hieroglyphs for the words 'A'max' and 'Ha-di'. He wore golden Egyptian battle armor and leather sandals.

"Ah, and who might you be?" Garnet asked.

"We are team SOLR (Solar) of Haven Academy." He pointed to one of his teammates, starting with the second. "Orville Odur." Then the third. "Apollo Legolas." Then the fourth one. "Atum Ra." And finally, he introduced himself as he put his hand to his chest. "Surya Arun." He set his hands down. "Unlike Rouge Gorlois, who claims to be a Haven academy graduate, we are actually bonafide huntsmen who actually graduated last year. And if you don't believe us, look at the footage of the last Vytal Festival Tournament. Believe it or not, Orville and Apollo actually fought against Nora and Pyrrha in the doubles round of said tournament."

"But make no mistake. This is not about revenge." Orville spoke. "It is about setting things right. When we fought against Pyrrha and her aid, we never could have guessed in a million years that they, along with the other three people Garnet mentioned, were criminals in the making."

A moment of silence passed before Garnet said, "Well, we are happy to see you join. Come, join me here on the stage." The four huntsmen walked up to the stage and faced the audience with neutral looks on their faces. "Anyone else?"

A random man stood up and made his way to the stage, all eyes on him. "I do not know the first thing about fighting. But I am willing to learn if that's what it takes to stop Pyrrha Nikos."

Soon other civilians, both men and women, volunteered and made their way towards the stage.

"I will join you."

"So will I."

"Count me in."

"Sign me up."

"I'll join!"

"I will stop her!"

"We'll join." a male police officer with a female officer by his side.

"So will we." three former soldiers spoke.

As more and more people made their way to the stage, Tyrian mused to himself, _Hmm... If Ruby is with team JNPR, perhaps I can use this to my advantage._

Team SOLR and others were standing on the stage, with Garnet at the podium and her bodyguards to the left and the volunteers on the right.

"Is there anyone else out there? Preferably combat ready?"

Tyrian slowly made his way to the stage and smirked. "I will join you."

"Hmm... You don't look like an officer, or huntsman or even a soldier." Garnet noted.

"I know looks may be deceiving, but I am ready. I was trained to fight outside the academies. I am very much capable of fighting these semi-pro huntsmen and huntresses. If I had to, I could take on the real deal."

"Well then, thanks for devoting yourself to our cause and welcome aboard." Tyrian took his place next to team SOLR with a neutral expression on his face. Garnet turned to face the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen, give thanks and praise for our heroes!"

Tyrian smirked wickedly as the crowd cheered and clapped for them. Gliss and Edom were scared to no end.

 _Oh no... Pyrrha, wherever you are, you better be careful!_ Gliss silently preyed.

"I officially declare this town meeting adjourned." Garnet declared. "Those of you who volunteered to stop Pyrrha Nikos and her friends, come with me."

Garnet left the podium, and her bodyguards followed. The volunteers left in tow with the civilians in the front and the combatants in the back, with team SOLR and Tyrian in the very back. Scarlatti's Trojan Alliance group walked off the stage and went into the modern part of the city. As they left, the crowd began to disperse.

"Oh no... Mr. Green isn't going to like hearing this." Gliss whispered.

Edom lamented in agreement. "No, he won't."

As the crowd slowly waned, Edom and Gliss found themselves alone in more ways than one.

* * *

Later on, Watts sat in deserted corner of a bar, checking his list of targets. He crossed off Ash Lynch and Amethyst Kreiss from the list. The scene switched to him making an updated list of targets.

The list now read as follows;

 _Cowan, Dove (still on paternity leave)_

 _Durham, Azura (still looking for Maura who's already been caught)  
_

 _Griffin, Blanka (team CUBB, caught Maura with teammates, presenting in her trial, hold off on killing for a while)  
_

 _Griffin, Carmina (see Blanka)  
_

 _Hunt, Terra_

 _Li, Midori_

 _Lunsford, Harkin (was looking for Maura, confirmed dead by Salem)  
_

 _Nash, Inigo_

 _Page, Orion_

 _Rivas, Aoi (still MIA, not relevant target)_

 _Rhodes, Cascade_

 _Shields, Heather (see Azura)_

 _Silver, Stark (Solo Vytal Festival Tournament Champion in 59 AGW, still active)_

 _Vaccaro, Farrow (see Azura)_

 _Wan, Shiro (returned back home)  
_

 _Yu, Lotus_

Watts left the building and began to muse to himself. _Who do I go after next?_

* * *

"So let me get this straight-" Mercury began, as he, Emerald and Cinder were shown standing in the meeting room of Salem's castle. "You want me, Emerald and Cinder to watch over this comatose woman?"

"That is correct." Salem spoke as she sat on her throne. A comatose Sienna Khan levitating a few inches off the ground was in front of her. "You will take eight hour shifts. I will leave it to you to decide the guard order."

The view shifted back to her three remaining agents.

"Okay, but... why are we doing this? If she's comatose, wouldn't it be more convenient to just leave her be?" Emerald asked.

"I have never purposely kept anyone in a coma before, and this could go wrong. I just need her to stay like this until the Revolutionists win the Mistralian White Fang Civil War."

Mercury, who looked annoyed, "Wouldn't it just be easier to kill her?"

"You are not to kill, injure or defile her in any way. This is the High Leader of the White Fang. She has an important role to fulfill in the war's aftermath." She put a black blindfold over Sienna's eyes. "Maura's trial is scheduled to occur in nearly two weeks. Assuming they find her guilty, she should be executed the following day. Word will spread immediately in Mistral's city, but it will take a bit longer to reach every corner of the kingdom. Ideally, Sienna should only wake up when everything she has tried to maintain has crumbled. If she wakes up, restrain her and then inform me. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'm."

Emerald nodded. "Crystal clear, ma'm."

"Cinder, nod your head slowly if you understand." She did so. "Good. I will leave you to it."

The scene transitioned to Cinder, Emerald and Mercury standing in the hallway. Mercury held the comatose leader in his arms.

"I know I wanted to do something, but I was hoping for something more exciting or blood-pumping. Note to self- be more specific."

Emerald smirked. "Note from self- you don't say?"

"Can we set her down? My arms are getting tired." He took her to an empty bedroom and set her down on the unmade bed. "So how do we set watchdog order?"

"Nose goes?" Emerald touched her nose and so did Cinder. Mercury groaned as he was too late. "Rock, paper scissors for who goes second?" Cinder nodded. They set out their hands and after a few seconds, Emerald made paper and Cinder made scissors. She smiled as she 'snipped' the paper. "Alright. Mercury first, me second and Cinder last."

He set an eight-hour timer and pressed start. The two ladies walked away and went down the hall to their respective rooms, Cinder grimacing as she went along.

 _I don't understand._ Cinder silently complained. _Wanting to keep Ruby alive, aiding other members of the White Fang. Why is she doing this?_

"Cinder? Is something wrong?" Emerald asked. Cinder gave no response. "Cinder?" Cinder walked away, slamming her door, leaving a worried Emerald without answers.

On the other side of the room, Cinder silently sighed.

 _Even if I could speak normally, it's not like I can just tell her about my secret research. For my own sake, I can't let anyone know._

She walked over to her nightstand with a round shaped humidifier. She screwed the top off, set it aside, and grabbed a pitcher already filled with water from her bathroom.

As she poured the water into the humidifier, she thought to herself, _I suppose being forced to rest my vocal chords does have a few advantages. No one can question me because no one can get an answer._ She screwed the lid of the humidifier back on, locking it in place. _But the sooner I can get my voice back, the sooner I can tell Watts to shut up._ She pressed the on button, and steam spewed out.

The silent maiden sat on her bed, her arms folded. _I still don't get it. If Ruby's so dangerous to the Grimm, and to me, why keep her alive? It would be easier to kill her. Hazel said that they've been dealt with before, meaning that he had to have killed one of them. So why keep her alive?_ Her thoughts turned to Salem. _What does she hope to gain?_

* * *

In the lowest level of the Catacombs Correctional Facility, there was no light. It was pitch black throughout the entire floor. No light was ever seen unless the guards were patrolling the halls or dropping off food and water for the prisoners. The darkness, along with not knowing if it was day or night, was enough to drive most prisoners insane. Maura Celandine, who had been here for a few days now, was not one of them. Being a faunus did have its advantages, but even through the darkness she could see, it did not make her feel any better.

She looked around her cell. Her cell was made of stone walls and the bars made of iron. The cell had a wooden plank suspended by chains to form a bench, a small bed in the upper left corner with only a single pillow and sheet, and in the upper right corner, a few dark red curtains that had a bathtub and toilet behind them. On the left side of the wall near her bed, she had a tally chart of how many days she had been there. There were five marks on here.

 _Five days. Five lonely, cold, days in the lowest level of the Catacombs. Of all the places to take me, why did it have to be this one? There's four other places they could have taken me to. Why here?_

The Mistralian White Fang leader looked around her cell. No one was around her. She softly asked aloud, "And why me?"


	67. The Story of a Girl

Sienna was completely comatose, with black magical wires (like the ones that kept Cinder alive) attached to her as she lied on the bed. Cinder stood guard over the comatose prisoner. She sat on a chair, watching as Sienna Khan remained motionless.

 _Man, this sucks._ Cinder complained mentally. _With me being asked to do guard duty, my secret research on the Silver-Eyed Warriors has come to a near halt._ She stared at Sienna's chain whip around her right arm. _I wonder if Salem would allow me to take her weapon so that it could be broken down into something I could use._ She paused to herself for a moment. _Probably not._ She groaned internally. _I can't believe it. I joined Salem to escape the fate I was cursed with, and now, I'm practically back where I started!_ She internally sighed. _I guess that's not entirely true. But this still sucks._

She looked at the timer on her scroll counting downwards; _7_ _:55:59. 58... 57... 56..._

The mute fall maiden internally sighed again. _This is going to be a long shift._

* * *

Several days later, the time had come for the Mistralian White Fang leader to face justice. Maura stood nearby her table in the courtroom, with guards watching her every move. She looked around and saw numerous attendees at the trial, from civilians to combatants. Between the loud chatter, she couldn't hear any conversations between the well-dressed men and women in the room.

To her left, a woman with dirty blonde hair and gray eyes stood next to a man with dark brown-blackish hair and green eyes.

"Where's VV?" the woman asked.

"He couldn't make it- he has a big gig tonight!" answered.

"Is that so? I would have thought he'd be here." She shrugged. "Guess not."

An Asian-looking man came up to them. He was a man in his 30's with jade green eyes, pale skin and short white hair with a pink streak. He wore a traditional green Mao suit. On the back of the shirt were twin eastern dragons coiled in the shape of a figure eight along with black dress shoes.

Another man close to Lotus's age with had tanned skin, ashen black hair and orange eyes stood along with him. He was wearing a standard business suit and orange cufflinks.

"Ah, Ms. Hunt and Mr. Page, so good to see you here."

"Lotus, I told you that can call us by our first names."

Lotus Yu corrected himself. "Okay then. Terra and Orion, nice to see you."

"Better." Terra smiled. "Nice to see you too, Inigo."

Mr. Nash smiled. "Thanks. I'm just glad to see that madwoman has finally been caught."

To her right, team CUBB and the prosecuting attorney stood nearby their table, with Maza looking saddened and ashamed. Carmina and Blanka were calm. Ayress gave Maura the 'I'm watching you' look and Maura tensed up in fear. The prosecuting attorney also glared at Maura and she sadly turned away.

Outside the gallery, sitting from the rooftops with a pen and clipboard in his lap and a pair of binoculars in his hands, Watts took note of the huntsmen and huntresses present.

 _I will admit, this was a brilliant idea. From here I can see nearly every huntsmen and huntress in the city that enters the gallery. Many of them are attending the trial along with the public commoners. Let's see... I'll leave team CUBB for another day, and pick off these heroes one by one. Now where to begin._

Back inside the courthouse, a gravel was banged against the judge's stand. Maura and her defense attorney sat at one table and team CUBB and the prosecutor at the other. The judge was a woman with bluebell eyes, pale skin and dark blue hair in a bun. She wore a black robe as was customary and she also wore white gloves.

"Court will now come to order." One of the officers spoke. "Honorable Judge Isabelle Bluebell presiding."

"Case of Mistral vs Maura." Bluebell began. "The defendant is charged with terrorist crimes including setting up the Storming of Sanctum as well as actively freeing prisoners from and destroying Argus Harbor Max Security prison. How do you plead?"

"I'm not guilty of any charges, I swear!" Maura pleaded.

The judge sighed. "I shouldn't be surprised. Is the prosecution ready to proceed?"

"Yes, your honor." the prosecuting attorney stated.

* * *

As the trial in Mistral continued on for numerous hours, Whitley was seen frantically pacing in his room. He paced from the blue door to the glass door at a moderate pace three times. After the third time, he groaned and fished out his scroll.

 _18:29_

 _February 4th_

The deadline to submit artworks for the charity auction was in less than an hour, and he _still_ hadn't heard from Iris. This was _bad_.

 _Come on... Where is she?! If she doesn't pull through, this plan is ruined!_ He breathed to try and calm himself. _Maybe she's on her way right now. But what if she doesn't show up?_

He looked again to see if there were any new messages. There were none. He put his scroll away and sighed aloud, thinking to himself, _This plan is about to go up in smoke. It's less than an hour before the deadline._ 18:30. _Thirty minutes til the deadline. Why hasn't she submitted her painting yet?_ _What if she never finished it? What if something happened to her? Iris, where are you? Why aren't you here?_

A knock on his door was heard. When he didn't answer, the servant opened his door. He respectfully bowed to him. "Master Whitley. You have a visitor."

The scene transitioned to the grand staircase. At the bottom of it, Iris was wearing a purple hooded winter coat over her attire, standing and shivering nearby an easel. The easel had a canvas hidden under a black drape. She looked up as she heard footsteps and saw Whitley happily dashing down the steps.

"Iris, you're here and-!" Whitley suddenly stopped rejoicing when he realized that she was shivering and that her fingertips were red instead of pale. "Oh goodness, you're freezing."

"It's just frostnip." At this moment, he noticed that her eyes were purple. Or were they always that way? "I'll be fine."

"Nonsense. You are my guest here, and I do not want you to feel cold while you were doing something for me." He saw a female servant standing around. "Why are you standing there?! Get her a warm towel on the double!" The maid ran off to get a warm towel as Whitley placed his hands over Iris's. "Oh my, they are freezing! How did your hands get so cold?"

"Unfortunately, I don't have any gloves to keep my hands warm. Usually I would keep my hands in my pockets, but I had to carry the painting and protect it from the elements."

"I see. Also, I attempted to call you about the painting quite a few times. How come you didn't answer?"

"My scroll broke a few days ago and I haven't been able to get a replacement yet. I would have written, but I had no time. I barely managed to finish the painting. For the last hour or so, I've been scrambling around looking for an electric fan to get the paint to dry quicker. After asking my five of my neighbors, I was finally able to get one."

The maid gave a warm towel to Whitley. "Here you go!"

He quickly give it to Iris as the maid sped off. "So you finished it?"

"I did. It took forever to get dry, but I did it." As she continued to warm up her hands with the warm towel, she looked at him fearfully. "I'm not too late, am I?"

"No, it is..." He checked his scroll. "18:35. You have arrived with a small bit of time to spare."

She sighed in relief and her eyes turned grey. "Whew. That's a relief."

 _You have no idea,_ Whitley thought to himself.

"Well, once your hands are warmed up, would you like to show me your painting?"

She smiled, her eyes turning yellow. "I'd love to." She looked at her hands and saw that her finger tips were back to their original pale color. "Hold this please." She gave the towel to him and stood to the side of the easel from Whitley's right. "This is the result of twenty eight days and countless hours of hard work. I put a lot of tender-loving care into this painting. May I present to you- my masterpiece. The largest and most gorgeous painting I've ever created."

The artist pulled the drape off and the camera showed Whitley looking at the painting in awe, keeping the painting itself from being in view. "It's beautiful. It's perfect! I couldn't have envisioned it better."

Iris put the drape over it. "Now then, where should I take this?"

"Let's bring it to my father's study. He should be able to take it from there."

The scene transitioned to Jacques in his study, examining reports before a knock on his door was heard. "Come in."

Whitley opened the door as Iris carried her draped easel with the painting on. "Good evening, father." He gestured to Iris. "This young lady would like to enter her painting into the art auction."

"First we have to see if it's worthy of being auctioned."

Whitley smiled. "I would say so, but you should see it for yourself."

Iris pulled the drape off the painting and the camera viewed Jacques's expression, shifting from neutral to a bit of surprise. "I will admit, it is very well done. Just submit your papers and we'll enter it right in."

The artist looked at him confused. "Paperwork?"

"We log all of our artwork in order to keep track of how many pieces are submitted. It seems you didn't know." Iris nodded sadly, her eyes turning blue. "Fortunately, I happen to have a form right there." As she approached his desk, he handed her an artwork submission form and a pen.

"That can be arranged." With grey eyes, she turned to Whitley. "While I do that, you think you can fetch the reminder of my payment?"

"Oh right. Let me search my room and I'll get that right to you."

Whitley left the room and Iris began to fill out the paperwork. A few moments later, Whitley returned from his Lien in his hand and handed it to Iris. "Well it cost me nearly every Lien I had my room, not counting my personal savings in the bank, but here you go."

"Thank you, good sir." She took the money and turned back to the submission form. "Almost done with the paperwork. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble coming up with a title for my painting. You think you could help me?"

"Certainly."

* * *

Back at the courthouse, the trial was running well into the night. The prosecutors had finished their argument, and now it was the defense's turn to try and counter the evidence stacked against her.

"Do you have any witnesses to call?" Judge Bluebell asked.

For a moment, there was silence. Maura whispered to her defense attorney, who then answered, "Yes, Your Honor. Defense calls Maza Bashir to the stand."

Many gasps were heard throughout the event.

 _What? Me? What am I supposed to say?_ Maza rapidly thought to herself.

"Maza Bashir of team CUBB? Did I say that correctly?" Bluebell inquired.

"You did, Your Honor."

"You are a member of the team who caught her, even though she has called you. This is an unusual occurrence, but you are allowed to defend her or decline to speak. Will you testify in her name?"

Maza looked to her teammates, all doing various gestures telling her not to speak for Maura.

"I will, Your Honor."

Even more gasps were heard as she made her way up to the podium, none being louder than Ayress.

 _I hope I can do this..._

* * *

Iris had come up with an idea for her painting's title. She wrote it down and was able to finish her submission. "And done."

"A thousand Lien just for painting it? I'm surprised you're not charging more." Jacques said.

"That's the commission fee." Iris answered. "If you look on my form, I'd like the starting auction price to be 14,400 Lien."

"We'll round it up to 15,000 Lien. Just to make it an easier auctioning price."

"Oh you're too kind." Her eyes turned blue. "Normally, I wouldn't charge commissioning fees. But desperate times call for desperate measures."

Whitley raised an eyebrow. "Desperate measures? What do you mean by that?"

"Well... You have probably already guessed this- I'm poor." Whitley nodded. "But I'm not just poor. Aside from the thousand Lien that I got by making this painting, I'm broke." She turned to Whitley. "You have found me in my darkest hour. Whether dawn will come is uncertain..."

He looked at her, concerned. "Darkest hour? How did it come to be this way?"

She sighed. "It's a long story. Where do I even begin? Oh. I suppose I have to start at the beginning. The very beginning."

The scene showed a still scene of a young Iris, about six years old. Her hair was down to her shoulders and she wore a white skirt with green polka dots and a bright blue shirt with a rainbow and clouds on it. She was sitting on a stool with a pink tipped paintbrush, smiling with yellow eyes as she sat in front of a painting on an easel.

 _I had loved painting ever since I was a little girl. For me, being able to create something beautiful out of nothing was the best thing in the world. It wasn't merely a hobby or something I liked to do. Art was life, and it was the only life I really wanted. But little did I know at the time that it would not come easily._

The scene turned to present as she asked them, "Are you familiar with the name Emily Khloris?"

"Can't say that I am." Whitley responded.

"It sounds a little familiar..." Jacques answered.

"She is a skilled huntress, one of the few first class messengers in Atlas... and my mother. My father Albin on the other hand, is a stay at home dad. He's not a complete doormat per se, but, Emily's really the one who wears the pants... If you know what I mean."

Jacques nodded. "I see. Go on."

"The thing with my mother is... she hated art. She never wanted me to be an artist."

The scene switched to a still scene of Emily scolding her daughter, who had pink paint on her arms and yellow paint in her hair.

 _My mother said that in today's post Great-War era, that creativity was at an all-time high, and that there was no need for me, the daughter of a huntress, to engage in such 'meaningless activity', as she called it. She wanted to forbid it entirely, but father convinced her to let me continue doing it. Alas, it was not enough to stop her from forcing me down the same path she walked._

"She wanted someone to carry on the family legacy, I presume?" Whitley asked.

"Well, if she wanted to do that, she could have just relied on my older brothers, William and Alexander. She forced all of us down that same path. But while my brothers actually liked it, I hated every minute of it. I didn't fully realize that she wanted me to become a huntress at first. I guess maybe because I thought I could easily get out of it."

 _When I was ten years old, combat training began. Private lessons with mom on the basics of combat and aura._

The scene showed Iris, now ten years old, standing outside in the backyard of her family's home. Her hair was pulled back into a small ponytail with the rest of it hanging loose and was wearing a purple knee-length dress with dark blue and bright green horizontal stripes on the skirt. Emily gave a series of punches towards Iris and she dodged all of them, well, save for the last one.

 _Eventually, she enrolled me in primary combat school at Shield Academy. It wasn't fun being forced to go here and learn things that I believed would never help me. It wasn't all bad though. I made a few friends there. Unfortunately, I lost contact with all of them over the course of my first year at Atlas. But still, it was nice to have friends. Growing up with only my family members, most of which teased and or ridiculed me on a regular basis, made me feel very lonely when growing up. Not many people ever wanted to be near me. Whether it was because of my weird color-changing eyes, they didn't know me, or they just didn't care, I really don't know._

Several groups of students were seen hanging out in an open-air cafeteria, among them were Iris and three other girls. They were shown at a table laughing and giggling.

 _Yeah, those were some of the good days. I never realized it though until much later. But e_ _ven forced on the path to learn combat, I still rebelled and showed off my creative spirit._ _At the age of twelve, as required by all students at Shield, I forged my own weapon. For my weapon, I forged a clear glass dagger capable of holding six types of dust at once. The dagger itself contained red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple dust to symbolize the rainbow. At first, I had difficultly naming my weapon. Nothing really fit well. Rainbow seemed too obvious, and Paintbrush just didn't work. Eventually, I came up with something._

Iris was shown holding her dagger in her hands. One of her friends asked her, "So what will you name it?"

Her eyes turned yellow. "Prism. For a prism can reflect the colors of the rainbow when light shines upon it."

 _I was very happy with the weapon I chose. Needless to say, mother was not happy having to pay for all those kinds of dust... several times. But she bore with it the same way I bore through the trials of primary combat school. I had hoped that after going through primary combat school I could convince my mother to not enroll me in Atlas Academy, telling her I wasn't cut out for the life of a huntress. She refused to listen. At this point, I realized there was no getting out of it, no matter what I said or did. I was enrolled in Atlas Academy a few days before my 17th birthday. It was also my brother Alexander's fourth and final year at the academy. Despite that, we hardly interacted with each other during my time at Atlas._

The scene returned to the present.

"I passed the entrance exam without a hitch. Although my group got one of the harder initiation tests, we all managed to pass, and thus, team CIMN (Cinnamon) was born."

The painter handed them a paper picture. From left to right stood four different women in front of Atlas Academy's courtyard standing before a stairway. On the far left was a woman with tanned skin. Her light brown hair was in a bob cut. Her chocolate brown eyes complimented the genuine smile on her face. She wore a light brown/orangeish sweetheart halter top with orange capri pants and a brown threaded bracelet with a golden frying pan charm on her right wrist. She wore brown boots to complete the look.

Iris stood next to her, wearing a rainbow colored long sleeved shirt along with dark blue capri pants with purple flowers on them. She wore the same orange and black tennis shoes she wore today (although they weren't worn out) and her hair was loose and neatly brushed as she smiled. Although she was smiling, her eyes were purple, indicating her fear for the events to come.

The third was a woman with pale skin, green eyes and black hair with a blond streak on her left. She wore a baggy black t-shirt with long sleeves. Each sleeve had a dark green scale patterned fabric snake, starting from her shoulders and coiling around her arms until their heads stopped at her wrists. She wore black jeans with lime green snakes traveling upwards starting at the ankles and coiling around her legs, stopping at her thighs. She wore forest green slip-ons and a green plastic snake anklet.

And on the far right was a woman with snow pale skin and blue eyes. Her black hair was knotted into a bun and held by a dark blue scrunchie. She wore a blue hoodless zip up jacket with a black vest on top and white undershirt. She also wore a black knee length skirt paired with dark grey leggings. She wore black derby shoes and black socks to tie it together.

"These are your teammates?" Whitley asked.

"They were my teammates during my time at Atlas." Iris pointed to each person in the photo. "Cinnamon Spice, myself, Mindy Celandine and Nila Summers."

"Mindy Celandine? She wouldn't happen to have any relation to the infamous Maura Celandine who is currently being tracked down in Mistral, does she?" Jacques inquired.

"For better or worse, she does. Maura is her aunt and Maura has an older sister named Demeter. According to what Mindy told me, twenty years ago, when the Faunus Rights Revolution came to an end, Demeter and Maura got into an argument. They heard about a group forming called the White Fang. Maura readily joined them, and tried to convince her sister to join her. Demeter, fearing that they would be a violent group, wanted nothing to do with them. She believed continuing to fight the status quo was pointless when it was easier to hide the truth. So she moved to Atlas. Soon thereafter, she met a nice young man, married him and eventually birthed two daughters; Chloe and Mindy. Chloe was born a snake scaled faunus, like her mother and aunt. She tried to keep it secret, but unfortunately, during her third year, her snake fangs were caught on video and posted to the internet. Now everyone knows who she really is. Mindy, however, is actually a half-blood. But that didn't matter to me. She was kind to me, honest, trustworthy, supporting and above all, loyal. She was my best friend, and after a while, she was my only friend."

"I see. And what of your other teammates?" Whitley questioned.

Iris made a so-so motion with her right hand. "Eh, Cinnamon Spice was nice, but she was never really a true friend. But she was better than Nila Summers. She was just horrible. She teased and ridiculed me on a regular basis!"

"So what happened to them?"

"I'm getting to that. It's a long story, and, if I be brutally honest, I didn't always do very good in school."

As she recalled what happened, her mind trailed back to her days in Atlas Academy. The scene showed her writing down answers on a test in a classroom. Then it switched to her getting an F on said test. She groaned.

 _I was highly stressed out from my course work. I didn't do very well in some of my classes, which in turn made my stress worse. Not to mention Nila bullying me most, if not, everyday._

Iris was seen painting in the courtyard of Atlas Academy. In the background was Claire Blanche, wearing a long white modern slip dress, knee length cerulean blue boots with small heels and white elbow length gloves. Part of her hair was white, but only a few streaks, and she wore it in a ponytail. She donned a silver and blue gem bracelet and a fake plastic silver tiara with blue gems. Her teammates stood by discussing and adding to the multiple conversations in the courtyard.

Also nearby were Ivori and Kobalt. The former was wearing a white suit, showing off no skin on his arms or chest. The latter had shoulder length hair, navy blue jeans and a light blue shirt without any armor.

 _More often than not, I would paint during my spare time. It served as a form of stress relief, pleasure, and a way for me forget about my troubles. Even if it was only temporary._

Nila came up to her. "Really? You're still painting?"

Iris scoffed and tried to focus on her painting, her eyes turning green. "Don't you have a test in stupidity to prepare for?"

"I'd never take a test like that. Not when you've already passed!"

"Oh please. You'd make so many mistakes, you'd pass for sure!"

"Mistakes? Ha! If you really want to know about mistakes, you should ask your parents."

The painter's eyes turned red. "Alright, that's it!"

Iris threw her paintbrush to the ground and confronted her teammate, slapping her in the face.

 _That resulted in the first ever fist-fight between us._

The painter and the critic were shown fighting in the courtyard, with many students watching. Among the crowd was team FNKI, team CRME, and many others that gathered over time. There was much cheering and screaming. People were even placing bets on who would win.

"You're the worst!" Nila screamed getting up from the ground.

"Stop criticizing my artwork!" Iris demanded. Nila yanked her hair painfully. "OW! And stop pulling my hair!"

"Go painter girl!" a girl cheered from the back.

"Don't let her bring you down!" Claire cheered.

Iris kicked Nila in the chest, causing her let go of her hair before the painter did a series of blows to her face.

 _The fight continued for who knows how long. Whether it be ten minutes, thirty, an hour or more I don't know._

The two were shown in gridlock, with Iris's right hand against Mindy's head and the other on her left shoulder, attempting to force her to the ground. Meanwhile, Nila was pulling Iris's hair with both of her hands.

 _Unfortunately, before I could best her, the fight was broken up by our team leader._

"Iris Khloris! Nila Summers!" The fighters, and the crowd observing them, turned to see Cinnamon, standing there angrily with her arms folded. Mindy stood there, worried for her best friend. Iris's eyes turned to purple as she looked at her team leader. The leader demanded, "What is the meaning of this?!"

Iris's eyes turned back to red as both girls answered at once, "She started it!"

"Actually, the blond one started it." Ebony answered.

"Ebony!" Claire scolded.

The smartypants shrugged. "What, I'm just telling it like it is."

"He's not wrong, though." Kobalt stated.

"Do I have to separate you two?" Without a word, Nila let go of Iris's hair and the latter stepped back a few feet. Cinnamon glared at her teammates. "I am ashamed of you. _Both_ of you. This is no way for future huntresses to believe!" Iris's eyes turned blue in shame. Cinnamon looked at the crowd angrily. "And you!" Many tensed up in fear as she looked at them. "Why didn't any of you step in and break up the fight?!"

"It's not our job to interfere in another teams business." Ivori answered.

"Besides, neither one was seriously hurt. So why interfere with the show?" Neon remarked.

"Eh, you do have a point there." Cinnamon admitted to Ivori before turning to Neon. "You, you're just wrong." Neon frowned as Cinnamon turned back to the crowd. "To those of you who are not part of team CIMN, I suggest you vacate the area at once."

The crowd of students walked away.

 _After the students dispersed, she gave us the harshest scolding that I had ever been given in my life. I don't remember everything word for word, but I do remember how angry she was with us. From that point, the teasing and ridicule from Nila became less frequent, but I still got mad pretty easily. Eventually, I asked Professor Periwinkle, one of my teachers, to give me access to her old classroom and turned it into a private art studio._

A woman with short periwinkle hair and icy blue eyes was shown standing before Iris in an empty classroom. The woman wore a long layered dress of lavender and snow blue with dark blue snow boots. She handed a set of keys to Iris.

Iris faintly smiled, her eyes turning yellow. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Periwinkle responded. "I hope that by getting away from your rude teammate that you'll be able to put more effort into your schoolwork, especially this class."

Iris gave Periwinkle a salute. "Don't worry, Professor! I won't let you down!"

The scene switched to Iris in Periwinkle's old office, painting a picture of a lush forest and creek, her eyes yellow as she gave a genuine smile. Her green tipped paintbrush touched the canvas as she continued to create her artwork.

 _Since me and Mindy were the only ones on team CIMN who knew where Periwinkle's old classroom was, Nila was unable to bother me._

A silent montage began as Iris was shown locking the door, doing homework in the commons area, and an irritated Nila standing in their dorm with Iris smirking. Then it showed Iris seeing high grades and marks in her classes and cheering.

 _I was able to paint there, do my homework in the courtyard or sometimes a deserted classroom, and avoid Nila like the plague._ _Slowly, my grades improved._ _Things were getting better. Nila was still a big pain in the ass when we had to spend time together, but I was able to take pleasure in roasting her._ _I was able to survive the first semester, not only passing all my classes, but doing pretty good in all of them too. At the end of the semester, me and Mindy decided to go out for ice cream to celebrate._

The two were shown an ice cream parlor in Atlas, sitting at a table across from each other. Iris had a cup of chocolate cherry ice cream while Mindy had mint chocolate chip in a waffle bowl. There were also a few mini cups of water that hadn't been touched yet.

"So your mother forced you to be a huntress?" Mindy asked her, before licking her ice cream again.

"I know right?" She put her spoon back into her ice cream and her eyes were shown to be blue. "It really sucks." She smiled, her eyes turning yellow. "But with you here, it feels like I can take on the whole world."

"Glad to hear it." Mindy slid one of the cups of water over to her before taking one and rising it into the air. "I propose a toast, to a long-lasting friendship."

"To friendship."

They clinked their cups and drank the water.

 _Mindy was my best friend. She meant the world to me. I believed that with her here, everything would be alright._


	68. It All Just Fades Away

Later that evening, Blake was seen at the top of the ship, standing above the captain's quarters. She was wearing her black cloak with her hood down, looking over the horizon. Sun, also wearing his brown cloak with his hood down, joined her at the top of the ship.

"I can't believe we've actually made it." Blake smiled. "I honestly thought this would be rougher."

"Don't celebrate too soon. We still have to get off the ship. Then we actually have to find Adam Taurus and defeat him."

"True." The ship began to slow down. "Looks like we're docking. Better ready ourselves."

As the ship docked, the two put their hoods up. The ship slowly sailed less and less as they gathered to the deck. Eventually, the two were let off the ship as they walked off hand in hand. They made their way to a deserted alley and took off their cloaks.

"We made it." Sun smiled as the two took off their cloaks, put them away and walked out into the city.

"Here we are; the village of Vita."

The village consisted of many cottages and small homes, mostly made of stone. The streets were lit by candle-lit street lamps. There were many shops and a few restaurants, most of which were closed at this hour.

"Looks like a nice place."

The catgirl gave a dry smile. "Too bad we can't stay."

The monkeyman raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it getting pretty late?"

Blake looked at her scroll. "Yeah, you're right. We better find a place to stay."

The two made their way through the village of Vita, looking for an inn or motel. It was a small village, and there weren't many skyscrapers, so they didn't have many places to easily loiter and not get caught. As they roamed the streets, Blake looked saw a scratched out White Fang symbol and looked away sadly.

"Is something wrong?"

"Sun... Have you have ever felt that you were doing the right thing, only to later realize you were wrong?"

"Is this about the White Fang?" Sun paused in hesitation. "Or is it Adam?"

But before Blake could answer, a loud masculine shout was heard, along with the sounds of gunfire and swords clashing.

Blake sighed. "Looks like there's no rest for the weary faunus... Let's move!"

The catwoman ran off with the monkeyman in tow.

* * *

Back in Mistral, Maura had just called upon her first witness, Maza Bashir to defend her. Now she could only hope that things would turn out for the better. As she stood at the podium, her hands out of sight, she tapped the tips of her fingers to other fingertips, calming herself.

"Ms. Bashir." Bluebell began. "You say that the defendant is not guilty. Explain why she is innocent."

She stopped tapping her fingers. "Well, during our journey to the Catacombs Prison, she stated many times that she was innocent. She mentioned that her lieutenant, or rather, ex-lieutenant, Athena Bruna, backstabbed her by attacking Sanctum Academy against her orders. So I did some research, and according to Nina News, there were a total of 514 faunus who attacked Sanctum Academy. Yet an earlier article stated that there were at least a thousand members known to be a part of Mistral's White Fang branch. So that means 486 plus members were missing in action. If Maura had really authorized the Storming of Sanctum, why would she not send all of her forces?"

Judge Bluebell raised an eyebrow at her. "Ms. Bashir, I see what you're trying to get at, but let me ask you this; What kind of general sends all their forces to one location? And how many of those generals have been successful?"

She lifted her finger and was about to retort, but she found nothing to respond with. So she moved on to her next point. "Well... Here's another thing. I did some analysis on the picture of Maura taken from Argus Harbor Prison and compared it to her prison head shot." The huntress put the pictures forth. One was of Maura at the Argus Harbor Max Security Prison (actually Tawny in disguise), and the other was Maura's prison head shot. "There was approximately fifteen days or slightly over two weeks in between the dates when each photo was taken. I noticed the following; First off, that her hair was not exactly the same length. There is a small yet significant difference between the two, about two to three inches. Hair does not normally grow that fast. I also noticed that Maura's snake scales were not the exact shade of green in both pictures. The Argus Harbor picture scales were lighter than the scales in the prison picture. Also, the Maura in Argus wore her green ribbon in her hair, yet when she was arrested, the ribbon was on her wrist. Due to these factors, I'm suggesting that the Maura seen in Argus Harbor Prison was actually an imposter, a faker."

The prosecuting attorney slammed her fist. "That's preposterous!"

Loud conservation broke out in the court. Bluebell banged the gavel down a few times. "Order! People, Order in the Court!" After the commotion died down, the judge looked back at Maza. "It may sound crazy, but she may have a point. Go on."

Maza smiled and Ayress softly groaned.

* * *

The scene switched to Jacques's study, as he and Whitley listened to Iris's story.

"So what happened to Mindy?" Whitley asked.

Iris sighed, her eyes still blue. "I knew you would ask that. This is the hardest part of the story to tell."

 _After surviving the first semester and getting my life on track, I thought that maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to establish an art career while surviving Atlas Academy. Then came July 31st, 78 AGW. It was about a month before second semester finals began... and it was the worst day of my life. Two days prior, we were assigned our first mission- to patrol the southern point of Mantle for three days. We were supposed to keep an eye out for Grimm, and, in the case of an invasion, fight them off and prevent them from getting into the city. Since there were four of us, at least two of us had to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at all times. Unless we were sleeping, then one of us had to stay awake. Everything was fine for the first two days. We would all do our jobs, shifting as necessary. Occasionally some music was played from Cinnamon's scroll to keep morale, and when I wasn't busy patrolling, I was painting._

The scene showed Iris sitting on a stool as Nila and Cinnamon stood guard a few feet from them. On the easel, she had a large canvas painted with mostly dark hues and a visible grey stone wall in the foreground. On the top of the wall in the middle of the canvas stood four women in a circle- these were Iris and her teammates, holding their weapons in hand.

 _I was actually painting the 66th painting at Atlas and the 666th painting overall. It was called_ The Night Shift _, and was a homage to the four of us doing our patrol work. I had a feeling that it would be one of my greatest pieces yet. I believed everything would come up roses. Unfortunately, I had no idea how wrong I was. As the sun just started to set on the third day, Nila decided to criticize me._

Nila folded her arms. "Iris, why are you still painting?"

Iris held the black tipped paintbrush, her eyes shifting from yellow to green. "Aren't you supposed to be on the lookout for Grimm?"

She folded her arms angrily. "No, my turn ended two hours ago. You were supposed to take my place!"

"Then why didn't you tell me?!" Iris put down the paintbrush. "I would have taken your place if I had known."

"You should have just known regardless. The sun was up there." She pointed her left arm high in the sky. "And now it's there." She lowered it slightly. "Even when you're not on lookout, you're still supposed to be alert, not doing pointless work!"

Iris's eyes turned red. "It's not pointless! I'm creating a masterpiece!"

Mindy, who was watching the post, muttered, "Uh, guys?"

"Iris, for the last time, this isn't art school! You're here to be a huntress! Also, your art isn't even good! It would never sell!"

"That's not true!" Iris retorted. "I've been able to sell my art before!"

"For like how much? Five measly Lien? You'd never make it in the big league."

"How do you know that?" She pointed at her teammate. "You're not an art critic! So try to put your money where your mouth is!"

"Guys..." Mindy started again, only to be ignored.

The argument continued as Nila said, "So why are even here in the first place?"

"Because I was forced to!" Iris quickly lashed out in anger. Cinnamon and Nila looked shocked. Mindy already knew, but was surprised that Iris admitted the truth. "I never wanted to be here! You don't know what's it like to be teased and degraded on a daily basis by your own family! And you?!" The painter pointed at Nila, who was still shocked. "You've only made things worse! You've been treating me like dirt ever since day one, and I have had it!" She got out Prism, loaded with six different kinds of dust, and unleashed a wave of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple dust at her teammate in anger. As Nila was hit with fire, rocks, electricity, wind, ice and gravity dust in one swift motion, she hurtled into the air and flew several feet, screaming before skidding on the ground.

She sat up and glared at Iris with daggers in her eyes and began, "Why you insufferable-!"

"GUYS! Grimm at 12 o'clock! We have a _major problem_!" Mindy called out.

Cinnamon gasped in disbelief. Iris gasped as her eyes turned from red to purple in a flash.

 _My blood turned cold as I saw the Grimm coming our way. There were dozens of them and only four of us._

"Aw crap." Nila glared at me. "This is all your fault."

Her eyes turned red. "My fault?!"

"ENOUGH!" Cinnamon ordered. "We have to stop the Grimm before they get through the wall!"

They quickly rammed through the wall, creating a large hole in it. Mindy fearfully spoke, "Too late."

"Then stop them before they get to the main part of the city!"

 _My blood instantly turned from cold to hot as I forgot all about my grudge with Nila and focused on the mission at hand. We quickly got out our weapons and got to work, pursuing the Grimm._

As team CIMN moved through the city, red flashing lights were shown from buildings along with a blaring alarm. The semi-pro huntresses went to work; Cinnamon fired her silver colored gun, Toaster, launching fire dust bullets at the Grimm, killing many of them. With her red eyes, Iris took Prism and used it to slow down the Grimm with multiple dusts being used at once. Mindy used her wind-dust green snake like whip, Serpentine, to fight back the Grimm, and Nila used her ice dust filled dark blue umbrella, the 'UmBRRella', to try and slow down the Grimm by freezing them.

 _At first, it seemed like we could defeat them. But one by one, things went wrong. First is that Grimm got into the main part of the city._

Grimm were shown attacking the people and buildings of Mantle, some of which were trying to flee from the Grimm. Most of them were able to get away, but others were not so lucky and were slashed by claws of the Grimm.

 _Second, Cinnamon ran out of bullets in her gun, forcing her to run to try and lead the Grimm away from the city._

Cinnamon was shown trying to fire her gun, only for nothing to come out. She ran away screaming.

Nila noticed this and asked, "Where is she going?!"

"She ran out of ammo!" Iris answered as she pulled her dagger out of the head of a Beowolf. She gasped upon seeing it, her eyes turning purple for a brief moment. "Oh no..."

 _Third, Prism ran out of dust to use against the Grimm. I wasn't completely defenseless, but it was not helping to the already very bad circumstances._

Her eyes red, Iris held her weapon in her right hand. She used her left to hold a violet aura shield lasting for a few seconds as a Grimm clawed at her. As the shield broke, she backflipped to evade the claws of an Ursa.

 _And then came the fourth incident. The final nail in the coffin._

Mindy was shown with her whip about thirty feet from her, and she was attempting to push back an Ursa with a green aura shield. But unfortunately, the Grimm scratched through the shield and slashed at the half-blood, breaking her aura and severely wounding her.

 _Mindy was horribly injured right before my very eyes._

As the painter saw this, her eyes went from red to purple. "Mindy!"

Iris pocketed her dagger and began running over to her best friend, despite Nila's protest. "Iris, focus!"

 _I blocked out her words and ran over to my best friend. She had very deep slash marks in the stomach and was bleeding all over. I ran to her and held her in my arms as the chaos continued around us. Her eyes looked sunken, and I was trying to help her as best as I could, which unfortunately, is really hard when you have no first aid kit or medical supplies. Still, I refused to abandon her._

"Mindy... Stay with me." Iris took her left hand, her eyes turning blue. "It'll be okay."

"No... it won't be..." Mindy weakly answered. "Not for me..."

One of her eyes turned purple in fear, and the other was blue. "No, please..."

"I fear this is the end for me. Just let me go..."

"Don't give up on me!" Tears began to fill Iris's eyes. It took all her willpower to not cry. She hesitated, her voice beginning to her break. "You're my best friend! And you're one of the only friends I've ever had! Who's ever supported me! You're all have I left! I have to help you!"

Iris began lifting Mindy from the ground, as Mindy answered, "There's no time." The painter began running away from the battle site, trying to hold back tears. "You have to stop the Grimm. Save the innocent, and forget me. Even if help arrives eventually, it'll be too late for me. I can already feel myself fading..."

"No! I won't! You're my best friend. I..."

 _I wanted to tell her how much she really meant to me, but in the midst of my sorrow and the city being brought to its knees, words had failed me._

For a brief moment, her right blue eye flashed orange, but then it turned back to blue.

"It's no use trying to save me." The half-blood coughed. "Please... let me go..." She coughed again, this time even harder.

"Mindy!"

"Save them." She looked into her best friend's eyes, pleading, "Save the innocent."

Mindy gave her last breath and slowly closed her eyes for the last time. Iris stopped and looked at her, her eyes purple. "Mindy, don't leave me! Mindy!" The emotions hit her all at once. Her eyes turned blue as she screamed. "NO!"

The tears she tried so hard to contain were finally falling. As Iris sobbed over the loss of her best friend, she closed her eyes and let the tears fall, becoming detached from reality.

 _It was over. Mindy Celandine, the only friend in Atlas Academy I ever really had, was gone. I didn't care if the Grimm had overrun the city at this point. I was too devastated by her loss to really even care about anything. I probably would have been devoured by the Grimm then and there._

Tears continued to fall down her face.

 _But I wasn't._

"Iris!" a familiar voice exclaimed.

She opened her eyes and found herself about to be eaten by Grimm, only to be saved by Cinnamon throwing a piece of debris at the Grimm and then punching it in the head with aura surrounding her fist for a brief moment.

 _I wanted to cry and mourn for my friend._

As Iris regained her surroundings, she saw that the chaos was only continuing, but gradually getting worse each minute. She put Mindy's corpse down and wiped away her tears.

 _Unfortunately, we still had a job to do._

Nila and Cinnamon ran up to the painter and the deceased half-blood. Upon seeing her, Cinnamon asked, "What happened?"

Iris nodded sadly. "She's gone."

Cinnamon's blood turned cold. "No..."

Nila was not effected by this news. Or perhaps she was more focused on the current problem at hand. She looked and saw Grimm coming near them, then turned to the leader of their incomplete team. "What now, boss?"

"I.. I don't know!" Cinnamon answered. The Grimm encircled the three of them in a wide circle. Iris got out her dagger, one of her eyes turning purple. "I'm still out of ammo, Iris has run out of dust, and if we couldn't handle it with four, how could we handle it with three?!" Nila and Iris held up their weapons and Cinnamon reactivated her aura to surround her fists. The creatures of darkness slowly crept in, giving them little room to breathe. They stood shoulder to shoulder. "Iris, Nila, if this is the end, I want to say that it's been an honor fighting with you."

"Great. We're about to go down as the biggest screw-ups in Atlas history." Nila sarcastically remarked.

 _So here we stood, three Atlas Academy students about to make their last stand. We all believed it would be the end._

Cinnamon punched the Grimm that Nila froze. Iris slashed wildly, her eyes flashing between red and blue, tears leaking from her eyes.

 _Although our efforts kept some of them at bay, eventually Cinnamon's aura broke, and mine was running dangerously low. But when we needed it most, help had finally arrived._

A group of huntresses came rushing in. The first one was a woman with light blond hair, violet eyes and tanned skin and a crossbow. Three others soon followed. The first woman quickly fired several rounds of three arrows at once, while the other three used their staff-like weapons to fend off and destroy the Grimm.

 _We quickly knew who our saviors were; Robyn Hill and the Happy Huntresses._

Fiona struck down the last Grimm with Robyn's aid.

 _Thanks to them, the Grimm had been defeated and the day was saved. Unfortunately, so many lives were lost, Mindy's life among them._

"What happened?" Joanna asked as she put her crossbow away.

Iris didn't know what to say, her eyes shifting between purple and blue.

"We were overrun by Grimm." Cinnamon answered. "Our friend... Mindy..."

Fiona gasped. May appeared to be saddened. "I'm... so sorry for your loss."

"How did this happen?" Robyn asked.

"Yeah..." Nila began, turning to Iris. "How _did_ this happen?"

Iris began to shake. "I..." She refused to answer and ran away.

"Iris!" Cinnamon called out. "Wait! Come back!"

She didn't listen, tears escaping her eyes as she ran. As she ran through the streets of Mantle, Pietro Polendina saw her from the streets, who looked at her worryingly.

 _Unable to bear the burden of being a semi-pro huntress, and Nila's horrible attitude, I fled the scene. I disregarded orders and snuck on a private airship back to Atlas._

The troubled painter was shown sitting on crate of dust crystals. She was crying, silently sobbing into her knees in the cargo hold of a ship.

 _Upon the plane landing, I ran back to my dorm room. By the time I had gotten there, night had begun to fall, and the last rays of sun were faintly visible in the sky.  
_

Iris was shown shoving clothes into a suitcase and placing items in a backpack. Her eyes were shown to be blue and tears falling out as she did this. She was shown in Perwinkle's old classroom, still crying as she put paintings into a very big box. She also left the keys behind on a desk along with a note reading, _For Professor Perwinkle_

She was shown sobbing again as she closed the door to a classroom.

 _Within thirty minutes, my bags were completely packed, and I wrote out a note telling my teammates and the staff that I was dropping out of Atlas because I couldn't handle the stress of being a huntress trainee. I also gave back Perwinkle's keys and took all my paintings from her old classroom._ _Everything had been lost. There was no reason to stay. I couldn't hold on. I couldn't go back and change the past, no matter how much I wanted to. I had to move on. With Mindy's death, it was pointless to continue.  
_

Iris stood in the courtyard of Atlas Academy with her backpack on her back. In her arms, she held the box with all of her paintings with her suitcase on top of the box. As she stood in the deserted courtyard, the sun had disappeared, and the sky was now completely dark blue as she took one last look at the school forlornly. She sniffed softly and blue eyes were shown to be red, puffy and swollen from crying. She shed another stream of tears and closed her eyes. "Goodbye Atlas."

She walked away from Atlas and didn't look back. As Iris walked away, Atlas behind her slowly began to fade to white.

 _And that was it. I couldn't go back. Everything just faded away as I left Atlas Academy behind... forever._


	69. Maybe I Can Light the Way Back to Me

Author's Notes:

-Hey everyone! Looks like school's been kicking my butt and I've been a little slower with these chapters. Some more reviews would also be nice, but I'll still write either way.

-In unrelated news, Happy Valentine's Day! (Or Singles Awareness Day!) Regardless of which one you celebrated, I hope you had a good day. Once again, there ain't much love or romance to be found in this chapter.

Any who, let's get this show on the road!

* * *

The scene returned to Jacques's study in the present, where he and Whitley were listening to Iris's story.

"I would have thought that things would get better from there." Iris told them, her eyes still blue. "Unfortunately, I was wrong. Not too long after I got home, mother kicked me out for my decision to drop out of Atlas. She believed that I was being a selfish, disgraceful, cold-blooded coward. This kind of treatment was the last thing I needed. Father tried to reason with her, but she refused to listen. She gave me a week to pack my bags and get out. She didn't even allow me to take my bed with me. She said she wanted to use my room for rent, but in reality, it was probably just to punish me even further.

"Since I had to find an apartment, I couldn't take all my paintings with me. All 65 Atlas paintings were taken with me, and _The Night Shift_ was never recovered in the chaos. All of my pre-Atlas work, save for the first painting I ever made and the last painting made before Atlas, was sold. However, not all 600 pre-Atlas paintings survived over the years. Some were destroyed by my meddlesome brothers. Some were accidentally destroyed by me. A few were confiscated and later destroyed by my mother. Still, with 538 pieces sold in seven days, it was the longest and largest individual art sale in recorded history. Although I did make a lot of money from it, I was still terribly depressed, even if I didn't show it.

"After seven days of selling paintings, moving all the items I could take with me to my apartment, and buying a green couch to substitute for my missing mattress, I isolated myself from the world. Since the previous week had been spent running the art sale and moving out, I didn't have enough time to properly grieve."

 _And as I soon as I shut my apartment door for the first time, I sobbed. Really hard._

Iris was shown slamming the door, before dropping to her knees and sobbing uncontrollably. The apartment was full of boxes which had yet to be unpacked.

 _The Grimm attack on Mantle, and all of the deaths that came with it, including Mindy's, caused me to feel really horrible._ _Because of what happened, I believed that everyone who died that day, including Mindy, was all my fault._ _As a result, I stopped painting for nearly two months. I was very tired, had no motivation, and simply lived in darkness, both literally and figuratively._ _Most of my early days had been spent on that green couch. After Mindy's death, I hardly ate, slept horribly and I found no joy in anything. I was suffering from PTSD, survivor's guilt, and quite possibly depression as well. And I was all alone._

Iris was shown with her green sheet and rainbow colored blanket, cuddled under the covers on her green couch. Her blue pillow was behind her, a few fallen tears visible on it. Her blue eyes stared around the dark room.

 _I never attempted, or even thought of suicide, but I didn't really want to live either. Living but not alive. It was a very miserable state of existence._ _Eventually, I was approached by one of my neighbors, a kind woman named Brook. She was an elderly woman who was kind to everyone that she met. She helped me get out of the dark place I had been in._

Iris was shown sitting on her couch with an old woman who had short white hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. Brook wore a simple dark blue dress with black horizontal stripes across it with black tights and white slip-ons with liliac flowers on the toe.

"Tell me child, what is it that ails your heart?" Brook asked her.

Iris sighed. "It's a long story."

 _I told her everything I told you so far, and she listened to me without judgement. She came to me everyday,_ _bringing baked goods and food,_ _and even gave me books to read for pleasure. A few days after our first meeting, I started painting again. Although I was painting more sorrowful works to express my feelings, I had returned to what I had loved doing. To make money, I sold my Atlas paintings and made new paintings to sell. A month later, I got myself a library card and began checking out books on a regular basis. I was at relative peace for two months. Brook had advised me to see a professional counselor, but I was reluctant for two reasons; One, treatment would be expensive. And two, I feared it wouldn't help me or that the therapist wouldn't understand me. It wasn't until Brook became lost her memory as a result of a car crash a month later that I decided to get treated for PTSD._

Iris was shown wearing the same outfit she was currently wearing, only her shoes were in much better shape and there were no paint stains of any kind as she sat in a therapist's office.

 _The therapy did help to an extent, but unfortunately, I still couldn't forgive myself for the tragedy that happened. Also, as a result of my treatment, my expenses increased significantly. Without a real proper job and all my Atlas paintings already sold, they were becoming harder and harder to pay. Eventually in September, shortly before Beacon's fall, I quit treatment. Then, sometime in November, the owner of Courtyard Apartments retired, and the new landlady increased rent. Other expenses also piled up, and soon I was losing customers interested in my artwork. Desperate, I tried creating several artworks in a week, sometimes even in a day, but no one payed any attention to me. As my problems got worse, I was fading into obscurity, and was soon forgotten in the art community._

Red paint stains were seen on her turtleneck as she looked at an artist receiving praise and money. She sighed sadly and walked away, not wanting her envy to be known.

"So why didn't you ever get a real job?" Whitley asked off-screen. "Or ask your parents for help?"

The scene returned to the present. "Because I thought that they wouldn't give me any help and I considered it to be the equivalent of proving my doubting family members, namely my mother, to be right." Iris answered. "I wanted to prove them wrong so badly; that I could make a living as an artist. Unfortunately, I am aware that my methods aren't working and that my stupid, stubborn pride could get me homeless. Or worse."

Jacques raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Refusing to give in due to my pride, I started living as cheaply as I could; taking advantage of every sale and free items, getting only the bare necessities, and, as of one month ago, limiting myself to a single meal each day." Whitley looked visibly distressed upon hearing this. Even Jacques grimaced slightly. "Even worse, a few days before Whitley came to me, I received notice that my medical bill of 6,500 Lien was overdue. They also added a late fee of 1,000 Lien. With 2,000 Lien for two months rent due at the end of the month, plus the total medical bill of 7,500, plus roughly 500 for utilities, I owe almost 10,000 Lien to varying parties."

"Oh dear." he responded. "That is a lot of debt for an unemployed woman such as yourself."

"It is. With the huge debt on my shoulders, plus the fact that I'm dead broke save for the thousand Lien I just got by making this artwork, this painting has never been more crucial. If it doesn't sell, it's the end of my art career, and possibly the end of me." She sighed, and a few moments of somber silence passed, no one knowing what to say. "Is it wrong to want to escape the fate you were born into? To become something bigger and better than what you currently are?"

For a moment, there was silence. Whitley did not know what to say. But Jacques did. "I wouldn't necessarily say so. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be born into wealth. But success does not come overnight. Not for most people anyway."

"You know, perhaps you could come to the concert." Whitley suggested. "You'd gain a very good reputation as an artist by standing among the elite."

"I can't. This money is basically my last resort emergency fund if I become homeless. Honestly, if I lose my home, I don't really know what I'm going to do." She sighed. "I suppose this small amount of emergency money is better than nothing... Besides, you're probably sold out of tickets by now."

"Actually, we're not." Jacques answered. "There are actually thirty left."

Iris looked at him in curious disbelief. "Really? And how is that so?"

"With the most of the internet going down when Beacon's CCT tower fell, ticket sales have been slower compared to previous similar events."

"Do you think that perhaps you could give one of these remaining tickets to her?" Whitley asked. "No one would notice one being given away."

"Considering the average amount of tickets sold a day is around fifteen, tickets are unlikely to sell out before the concert begins... Hmm..." Iris looked at him sadly. "Oh... Alright. I'll give you a ticket to the SDC Charity Concert, on the condition that you tell no one I gave it to you."

Her eyes turned yellow as she beamed. "Thank you, Mr. Schnee!" She put her right hand over her heart. "You have my word as a painter!"

"I do have one question for you." He handed her a ticket. "Why it is that your eyes change color?"

She put the ticket away and answered, "I was born with a rare, non harmful condition called EECD. Stands for Everchanging Eye Color Disorder."

"I believe our butler Klein has a similar condition to yours." Whitley added. "Perhaps it is just EECD in a different form."

"I can't speak for Klein, but in my case, my eyes are normally grey when I am calm or feeling no emotion. There are six different alternate eye colors that may appear, all of which are colors of the rainbow. I'd tell you what emotion responds to which color, but usually they're pretty easy for most people to figure out."

"Alright, let's see if I can correctly guess them." Whitley mused himself for a moment. "Blue is obviously sadness." Iris nodded in confirmation. "Yellow is joy. Purple is fear." She nodded 'yes' for both of them. "Green is... envy?"

She nodded negatively. "Disgust actually. You were close."

"Red is anger without a doubt. But what's orange?"

Iris chuckled. "I'm not telling you that one. I will tell you this; it is an emotion I feel so rarely. Perhaps, if I feel that I can trust you enough, maybe I will tell you." Her eyes turned purple. "Oh man, I just realized something! How am I going to dress to hide among the upper class elite? What if they see me as a fake?"

"Calm down, Iris. Just wear the nicest dress you can find. As a nice young lady surely you must have at least one dress in your closet."

"I have a few of them." Her eyes turned grey as she thought to herself. "I have one semi-formal dress that might fit the bill. Any tips on how to look like an upper class member? Like, what kind of jewelry to wear? And how much? How to style my hair? Or...?"

"Slow down, Iris. I can't listen and respond that fast. Generally for jewelry, less is more. If you want to fool the upper class, you don't want anything overly obvious. If you have a pearl necklace or bracelet, don one of those pieces. Pearls are harder to examine from a distance. For your hair, you definitely want it brushed and neatly groomed. Once that's done, I'd advise you to put it up in some way if you can. I know you probably have more questions. Perhaps you could come here to prepare and enjoy the afternoon with us."

"Really?" Her eyes turned yellow. "Wow, um, thanks?"

"You're welcome. Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"

"I do have one question, although I fear you might not have an answer." Iris's eyes were now purple. "How many paintings have been entered into the auction?"

Jacques looked at something on his computer. "Let's see... With your recent addition, there are approximately 176 paintings."

"And how many artworks are there total?'

"315 total artworks have been entered."

"Why do you ask?" Whitley responded.

She rubbed her right elbow nervously. "Honestly, I'm scared that my painting won't sell. With over three hundred pieces entered, and over half of them being paintings, what are the chances that my last ditch effort will succeed?"

"Don't worry, Iris." He smirked. "There's no way anyone will be able to turn a blind eye."

* * *

Meanwhile in Vita, Blake and Sun followed the sound of the scream they heard earlier. Upon reaching the scene, they saw four Noire armada sailors led by a man with black fedora hat with a yellow ribbon around the base. He wore a black cape with a yellow interior, a black t-shirt with yellow horizontal stripes and ripped black jeans. On the left side of his shirt was a skull and crossbones emblem- the symbol of the Noire Armada. It was hard to see his hair and eye color from a distance.

They also saw five faunus, all of which were teenagers. Three of them had green ribbons on their right wrists while the other two had owl feathers on their masks. The three with green ribbons were a boy with dog ears, a girl with bunny ears, and a guy with cat ears. The two with owl feathers had one member with a lizard tail and the other with a trait that couldn't be easily seen.

"Look, I know we hate each other, but until these guys are out of our hair, I think we should work together." The dog eared boy spoke.

"He has a point." the lizard tail man remarked.

The bunny eared faunus sighed. "Fair enough."

"What are they talking about?" Sun asked in a whisper.

"I have no idea." Blake answered in the same hushed tone. "Why would the White Fang be fighting amongst themselves?"

"Well, looks like we have to do this the hard way." one of the Noire Armada sailors said.

"It's always the hard way." the fedora man told them.

That voice was familiar. Blake squinted her eyes and looked at his face. Upon closer examination, she realized... "Xanthe?"

"Looks like he's still playing actor." Sun stated. "What do we do now?"

"Did you hear something?" one of the Noire Armada sailors asked.

"No. Why?" another responded.

The bunny eared girl's bunny ears perked up. "I did. Someone's eavesdropping."

Everyone looked up and saw them.

"Intruders!"

"Encroachers!"

"Well, looks like subtlety is out." Blake said.

She and Sun jumped down into the fray.

The third Noire Armada sailor gasped, pointing to Blake. "It's her! The one who killed Corvina! Get her!"

The four sailors charged towards her. Blake fired her gun at three of the incoming sailors as the duel began, killing the third one with a headshot as the other two dodged. Sun quickly got out his staff, and knocked down the two Revolutionists as he spun it around. At this moment, Xanthe decided to punch one of the sailors.

"Hey man, what are you doing?!" he asked.

"Sorry boys, but things aren't always what they seem." Xanthe apologized.

He took off the Noire Armada badge and got out his frying pan. He quickly knocked out the sailor with the pan and then stabbed him with a dagger to the throat, killing him in his sleep. Blake kicked the first Noire armada sailor down as Sun used rope to tie up the easily defeated Revolutionists. The first one was stabbed in the back of his neck by Xanthe, ending him.

The second and fourth sailors were trying to run away.

"We need get out here!" the second sailor exclaimed. "We have to warn her!"

Xanthe stood right in front of their path and gave them a malevolent glare. "I'm afraid you're not going anywhere."

Blake and Sun crept in towards the sailors as the White Fang faunus retreated behind them.

"Oh no." the fourth one said.

Brief darkness was seen as two masculine screams were heard. The scene switched the trio on a nearby rooftop. Xanthe was cleaning the blood off his dagger with a black cloth as Blake and Sun stood nearby.

"Nice to see you again." Blake greeted.

He gave a dry smile as he put his weaponry away. "Same here."

"Hey, um, Xanthe? What exactly were the faunus talking about when they said that they hated each other?" Blake asked.

"And what's up with the green ribbons and owl feathers?" Sun inquired.

He raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"

Blake looked saddened and confused. "Know what?"

"Long story short, Mistral's White Fang is having a civil war for power. The green ribbon-wearing loyalists want Maura Celandine to remain in power while the owl feathered masked Revolutionists want to help Athena Bruna ascend to power." the Noire Armada traitor elaborated.

Sun scratched his head. "A civil war? But if that's the case, then why would Adam, the Valeian leader, be here?"

Xanthe shrugged. "Beats me."

"He's probably trying to aid one of the sides in this war." Blake speculated. "The only question is which side is he trying to aid and why."

The monkey tailed faunus yawned. "Honestly, I'm too tired to think."

"Looks like it's been a long night for all of us." Xanthe told them. "I know we must part ways, but before you do, could I get your numbers? Just in case they fix the CCT tower at Beacon?"

"Seems unlikely, but I don't see why not." Blake said

They exchanged their scroll numbers and soon went separate ways.

* * *

Back in Mistral city, the trial had run late into the night. The guards insisted they try to get it finished in one night, thus making nearly everyone tired, from the gallery to the jury. Only the judge, Maza, Maura and a few gallery members were wide awake. Everyone else was mildly sleepy, very sleepy or in some cases, already fallen asleep.

"Has the jury reached a verdict?" Bluebell asked.

The main juror yawned. "Apologies for the weariness, Your Honor, and yes, we have made a decision." Another yawn was made before clearing their throat. "We the jury find the defendant, Maura Celandine... guilty of all charges."

Maza looked down sadly. Maura was saddened, but not surprised. She knew calling Maza to defend her would be a long shot.

"All rise." Everyone stood up. "Maura Celandine, you have been charged guilty of all crimes and you will be swiftly sentenced to death."

Maza gasped as Maura looked on fearfully.

 _What? No! This... this can't be._ Maza thought silently.

"I now declare this Court be adjourned. Thanks to everyone who came." Bluebell banged the gavel. "Now get this terrorist heathen out of my sight."

The people in the gallery started to leave the courthouse. Many exited and bid each other goodnight. From the ground, a binocular view of Lotus and Inigo was seen as they walked off. On the rooftop, Watts, kneeling down, put his binoculars away and looked at his targets with a smirk before leaving the scene.

Back in the courthouse, team CUBB stood as the trial ended. Judge Bluebell quickly took her leave as Maza looked sadly at the Mistralian White Fang leader. "Maura... I didn't ask for this."

Maura said nothing to her. She remained silent as the guards led her away. Maza looked on sadly as Maura was taken back to the prison. Turning away from her teammates, she shed a tear which slowly made its way to the ground. The courthouse had emptied save for them.

Carmina nudged her shoulder. "Time to go." She turned back to her teammates. "We can't stay here all night."

"Besides, we have an award to collect!" Ayress excitedly stated.

Maza's teammates quickly walked forward and she sadly trudged behind them.

 _Is there no justice in this world?_ she silently thought as they went forward.

* * *

As the trial came to an end, the heroic quintet were setting up their campsite somewhere in the outskirts of Vale. With his and Pyrrha's tent already set up, Jaune lit up the campfire as everyone got out their sleeping bags.

Ruby turned to the red-cloaked 'huntress' with a smile. "I can't believe that you fooled that Trojan Alliance captain in the card game."

The faux fashion model smirked and spoke in her best French accent, "What can I say? Rouge has a few tricks up her sleeve."

"Remind me, why are we camping out here when there's a village about three miles that way?" Nora asked, pointing behind them.

"It's too dangerous to stay in villages and cities associated with the Trojan Alliance." Jaune answered. "We were pushing our luck in Aquarian. And now that we have enough supplies to make it through the rest of eastern Sanus, we have no reason to stay in any of those places. We stay mobile."

'Rouge' nodded in agreement.

Nora grunted. "Fair enough."

Jaune yawned. "Man, I'm tired."

"It's a good thing Ruby's doing her guard shift first. Get some sleep while you can." 'Rouge' advised.

Jaune didn't need to be told twice. He immediately went into the tent.

Ruby smiled. "Looks like I'm up to bat again. Sleep tight guys."

"Goodnight." Ren said.

Nora bid, "Goodnight everyone."

"Sleep well." 'Rouge' told them.

The red-haired warrior crawled into her tent and found Jaune sleeping like a log. She tried to fall asleep that night, without much luck. Eventually, sleep did find her. The dream started with nothing but darkness.

"Turn back..." a female voice stated. "Turn back..." A silent pause. "Please... turn back."

The darkness cut to the kingdom border of Vale that she and her friends were at a few weeks ago. Her form appeared as a red specter of her old self, before the Fall of Beacon. She was no longer wearing her red mask, her fashion model clothing, and she didn't even have her red cloak with her. She looked at herself in her old outfit, seeing herself made of red light. She touched her right hand to her opposite arm.

 _I'm still alive... but what am I doing here?_

She saw a green cloaked lady riding on a white horse. She stopped upon seeing a little green-haired girl with a crashed pink bicycle. Although a fully-grown Emerald was shown standing there _,_ the rider dismounted from her steed and slowly approached the child, kneeling down to her level. The girl flinched in fright when the woman reached into her clothes and pulls out an apple, not realizing she's only offering it to empty air.

Emerald stood a few feet away from the oblivious heroine, scrunching her face up in determination and readying to attack by grabbing her weapons and sliding a foot back. The kicked-up dust was seen behind the girl even when the one who kicked it doesn't, and the woman gasped as the image of the child happily reaching for the apple suddenly disappeared. She dropped the fruit and leapt back quickly as the horse ran away, the woman ditched the cloak and pulled out her weapon, expanding the double crystal-headed staff to full length.

 _Amber?_ Pyrrha thought, feeling a cold chill wash over her.

She saw Emerald running towards her, guns blazing green shots, each of which were deflected against her hand. Amber twirled the spear around her body, kicking up the winds and blasting it towards her opponent, forcing Emerald to slide back.

The gladiator girl watched the scene worryingly.

"It's awful, isn't it?" a voice added.

Pyrrha turned to find an orange specter of Amber beside her, looking just like she did before her defeat at Cinder's hands.

"Amber?" Pyrrha looked at her in disbelief and quickly asked, "What are you doing here? What is this?"

As the image of the fight continued, Amber answered, "I came here to give you a warning. You need to turn back... before it's too late. You don't want to end up... like me." Amber's spirit told her.

Pyrrha turned and looked to see the past Amber floating in the air with a yellow-orange glow around her eyes. As the winds rushed around her, she threw lightning bolts at her opponents, who barely dodged them.

"How did this happen? You were so powerful."

As the footage of the fight continued, Amber answered, "I had only had my powers for three months. That's far less than a year. Power isn't always enough to defeat your opponents. They were smart, strong, and clever. And now Cinder Fall has the strength, smartness, cleverness, and the magical power."

The past Amber screamed and was held down by Emerald and Mercury. Cinder got on the glove with the Grimm beetle and approached Amber.

 _Oh no..._ Pyrrha thought.

"No, please... don't!" Amber's past-self pleaded.

Pyrrha looked on in horror as Cinder started to drain her powers. Amber's spirit slowly shifted from her warrior self to her injured appearance. But before Cinder could take all of her power, Qrow appeared and severed the connection. He held the unconscious Amber in his arms as Emerald blurred his perception to obscure their faces. Without hesitation, the trio made their hasty escape. Pyrrha watched as Qrow ran off to get Amber help.

Amber's spirit turned to Pyrrha. "I know you wish to face Cinder, but I believe that you are making a grave mistake." She stated. "I fear that with or without her maiden powers that she can't be stopped. "

Pyrrha looked at her with a sad yet sincere expression. "You're wrong. I can face Cinder and win. I'm not facing her alone. I tried that once and I failed. But I have four friends with me now. If Jaune or at least one of them helps me fight Cinder directly, we can beat her, and her two cronies will soon follow!"

"You may have your friends now, but will they truly be able to stop Emerald and Mercury? Even if Jaune directly aids you in battling Cinder, will he be there when you need him the most?" The red-haired warrior looked down sadly, wondering if she was right. "Please, I'm telling you. You don't want to do this."

Pyrrha stood her ground. "I have to."

Amber crossed her arms. "Why? For power?"

"I'm not going this for power. I'm doing this to set things right."

She scoffed. "Yeah right." Amber turned away. "Everyone looking for a maiden is always in pursuit of power!"

"But I don't want to be the fall maiden!" Pyrrha snapped.

The former fall maiden turned back to her. "Are you sure about that?" Pyrrha began to doubt herself. "The Maiden's power isn't a blessing. It's a curse. I thought I could handle the responsibility since I was given it from my successor, but I was horribly mistaken. I prepared myself to be the fall maiden for two years, but I wasn't ready to be ambushed. I thought that if I kept quiet about my powers I could protect myself. I was wrong," She held her hand to the injured side of her face, and the other to where Cinder had killed her with the arrow. "and look what it cost me. You don't want to do this."

Amber's spirit began to flicker. "Amber..." Pyrrha began.

She sadly looked at her would-be successor. "I must go. If I were you, I'd turn away while you have the chance. But the decision is ultimately up to you. However, if you find yourself on the brink of death at her hands, don't say I didn't warn you."

The spirit faded into orange light and the red-haired warrior woke up. She was no longer Pyrrha, but she didn't feel like was the person was pretending to be. Even with the mask on her face, she felt vulnerable. The red-haired woman looked for Jaune, who was not there as he was on guard duty.

Her thoughts turned to Amber's successor, Cinder.

 _Do I really stand a chance against her?_ she thought to herself.


	70. Say Goodbye, Time to Die

Author's Notes:

-Greetings readers! I was going to make you wait a bit longer for this chapter, but it's not every year we have a Leap Year. And it is Leap Day. So, I figured I'd be nice and give you guys an update. Who knows? Maybe I'll even get some good luck or something. Unfortunately, for one of the characters shown, all of her luck has run out.

But enough about luck and leaps. Let's get this pain-train rolling!

* * *

Deep in the Catacombs Correctional Facility, on the very bottom floor where there was no light, death row prisoner Maura Celandine was sinking into despair. It was early morning in Mistral, around 8am. But in the darkness she couldn't tell what time it was or how long she had been imprisoned here since the end of her trial. After Judge Bluebell declared her guilty, Maura tried to get some sleep, but her efforts were unsuccessful. She couldn't sleep when she knew what was going to happen. Normally, as a death row inmate, she'd wait for a year or two at least before being executed. If she was lucky, she would wait a few years before facing capital punishment. However, as a branded terrorist, she was automatically bumped up to the front of the line. In the same way they rushed her trial, the prosecutors and the public were rushing and pushing for her immediate execution. Today was the day. Her last day.

Maura sat in her prison cell on her bed. Her hair was now worn loosely, letting it fall naturally. There were visible bags under her eyes and the necklace she wore had been taken off. In the corner of the camera view, her necklace was seen on the ground along with her green scrunchie.

 _It's over..._ She thought. _Why am I even awake? Maybe I should just go back to bed..._

She looked up as she heard a guard unlock the door and enter her cell, shutting the door behind him as he held a flashlight in his hand.

"Ms. Celandine. I've come to inform you of your upcoming execution." the guard stated. "As you know, your execution is today, and as a convicted terrorist, you are being moved up to the front of the line. All other executions are being stopped because of your actions. Your execution will be at sunset and will involve..."

As the guard went into the details of her execution, Maura didn't pay much attention and instead let her thoughts wonder. _At least I'll get to see the light one last time..._

"And, as is customary for prisoners on death row, you get to have something special within reason for your last meal. Any requests?"

She nodded her head. "No thanks. I don't want it. Better yet, give it to a homeless person."

The guard was silent, as though processing her statement. "Very well then."

Without another word, he left her cell, locking the door behind him.

 _This can't be happening..._ Maura thought. _Is it really over?_

* * *

Sometime later, Watts stood in front of an apartment in the lower levels of Mistral city. After making sure the cameras weren't on him, he roamed through the hallway to Room 419.

 _The apartment of Lotus and Inigo. Seems they've become roommates since I last came here._ Watts thought to himself.

He decided to knock on the door. As he waited for an answer, he got out the electric device and turned it on. Ten seconds passed, and there was nothing but silence. Watts pondered his next move. He got out a lock-pick and unlocked the door before shutting it behind him. He put away the lock-pick and retrieved his scroll. He turned his scroll's flashlight feature on. With scroll light in one hand and the overpowered taser in the other, he roamed the apartment, finding two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room table with four chairs, and next to it, a living room with two couches facing towards each other. Behind the second couch, the floor to the window was taken up and covered by boxes. He looked at every inch of the place, but its two residents were not here.

 _I should use this opportunity to hide myself. Once they return, I'll turn their lights off for good.  
_

The scientist hid himself behind the second couch. He turned off the taser and scroll light and looked at the time, sighing softly. He was going to be here a while.

Roughly a half-hour later, the sound of a door being opened was heard.

"That was very tasty." Lotus said.

"Indeed. Purple's Pizza Parlor always has the best stuff." Inigo agreed.

The former put a box in the refrigerator as Watts looked at his targets. "Triple P for the win!"

Creeping up from behind the couch enough to see them while remaining hidden, Watts looked at his two targets. Lotus and Inigo were in the same outfits they wore to Maura's trial.

"I still can't believe that they caught her." Inigo told his roommate.

"What's really unbelievable is that Maza defended her." Lotus remarked.

"Do you really think that they're going to execute Maura so..." Inigo asked. Watts tried to sneak back under the couch, but as he slowly slid back down, his hand accidentally knocked over a box. "Did you hear something?"

"I think it came from behind the couch." Lotus answered. He came closer to the couch only to see a silver rod charging with purple electricity come towards him as he knelt down. He gasped upon seeing Watts. "Intruder!"

He rolled back to avoid the taser. The scientist showed himself as the battle began. Watts attempted to shock Lotus, but the overpowered taser was knocked out of his hands when Inigo kicked him in the stomach.

 _Oh crud._ he thought to himself.

As Watts swiftly evaded their moves, he formed his arms into an x shape to block Lotus's punches.

"Who are you?!" Inigo angrily asked him.

Watts smirked, trying to keep the vantage. "That..." He let his arms down and jumped to the side to avoid Inigo's blow. "is none of your concern."

He ducked down to avoid the punches and grabbed the taser. Watts electrocuted Inigo Nash with the overpowered taser, killing him immediately.

"Inigo!" Lotus watched as his friend fell to the ground. "You'll pay for that!"

The scientist tried to shock Lotus with the taser only for said taser to be knocked out of his hand with a hand slap. With his right foot, Lotus crushed the taser, destroying it. Lotus got out a dagger. "You're not so tough without your gadgets are you?"

Watts laughed. "Oh, Mr. Yu, You underestimate me. And the biggest mistake in combat-" He got out his revolver. "is to never underestimate your opponent."

Lotus Yu was kicked in the gut and subsequently shot in the head, ending the battle. Watts walked out of the apartment unseen.

* * *

Meanwhile in Atlas, Iris had just arrived on the grounds of the Schnee family manor. Light snow fell around her as she was shown wearing her purple coat with her hood up, carrying a purple bag on her left arm and her hands in her pockets. The camera turned to her face, showing her grey eyes. She took her right hand out of her pocket and opened the door to the manor. At the top of the stairs, she found Whitley waiting for her with both of his hands behind his back.

"Greetings, Iris. Glad to see you have made it here safely."

She ascended the stairs to greet him, her eyes turning from grey to yellow. "Hello Whitley." She noticed both hands behind his back. "What c'ya got there?"

"I got you something." He pulled out a pair of slate blue gloves. "So that your hands wouldn't freeze."

The painter took the gloves. "Wow, um, thank you?"

"You're welcome." She put them in her coat pocket. "Perhaps you would like a tour of the house?"

Sometime later, the two were shown walking in the servant's quarters.

"Wow. This is a very spacious area." Iris said.

"Indeed." Whitley responded. "The house staff currently consists of thirty five employees. Mrs. Blanche's chamber should be around here somewhere."

"If you're looking for Estelle, I'm afraid you won't find her here." Merla stated.

"What? Where is Madame Blanche?" Whitley asked.

"Estelle took the day off." Jacques answered from behind them. "Usually she saves all of her off days towards the end of the year, but she said that she wanted to see her eldest granddaughter Claire, who arrived at Atlas Academy early."

"Well that doesn't make any sense. Why would she be here early?" Whitley inquired.

"I don't know, and it's not really any of my business to know. We have more important matters to attend to." Jacques responded.

Iris looked away sadly, and Whitley noticed. "Is something wrong?" He looked at her eyes, seeing that her right was blue and her left was green. "You don't like Claire Blanche, do you?

She sighed. "No, I don't. I'm envious of her actually."

"And why is that?"

"Claire has everything. Friends, fame, popularity, the ability to choose her path in life and not be judged for it, a mother who loves her, presumably a good amount of money to her name and the respect of everyone around her. She's successful, beautiful, graceful, and loved by all." Iris told them. "And me? I'm nothing compared to her. I'm a coward, a failure and I'm on the verge of losing what little I have left."

Whitley raised an eyebrow. "She can't really be all that. Can she?"

Iris got out her scroll. "Just see for yourself. The camera never lies."

She showed them some pictures of her from various news articles;

The first picture of Claire Blanche was taken during her first year. She sat on a tall stool with her feet on the rail below as she smiled and posed for an interview. She was wearing a sapphire colored ballroom princess costume dress with a sapphire colored sash and neon blue heels. She wore her hair in a bun and it lacked white streaks. For accessories, she wore an imitation gold and sapphire necklace with a tear jewel at the center and smaller gems on the chord, fake sapphire earrings, and a silver bracelet with blue gems her left wrist. On her hands she wore white wrist length dress gloves. The royalty look was completed with a plastic golden crown with a big blue circular gem in the center, with smaller gems of green, yellow, orange and red to the right and indigo, purple, white and black to the left.

The next picture was Claire fighting Rouge Arc during one of her solo finalist rounds in the Vytal Festival Tournament two years ago. Rouge was wearing an A-line red dress reaching slightly past her knees with her ruby heart earrings and wore red elbow length gloves along with her heels. Her bun was slightly falling out as she held an electric dust dagger in her right hand and an ice dust dagger in her left. Claire's weapon, Glace Blanche, was held in her right hand. In the photo, she wore white pants with a midnight blue mini skirt and a statement shirt of white and blue folded vertical stripes. On her feet, she donned white cowboy boots with winter/snowflake designs in snow blue. Her jewelry had been removed and her hair was loose and slightly messy while donning a light blue bandanna above her forehead.

The next picture was taken right after she had won the Vytal Festival Tournament. She stood alone on the stage, and in the background, the screen showed a blurry image of her last opponent defeated by ring-out and aura level. In this photo, her bandanna was missing and she wore a plastic silver tiara with blue gems. Underneath was the caption, _"Hail to the new queen!"_

The last picture was taken during her second year, with her current teammates beside her in the courtyard, all smiling for the camera. She wore a long white modern slip dress, knee length cerulean blue boots with small heels and white elbow length gloves. A few streaks of her hair were white as she wore it in a ponytail. She donned the same silver and blue gem bracelet from the previous year and the fake tiara she donned at the end of the tournament she won.

"I will admit, she does look impressive and has an air of queenly grace to her, but how do you know that she isn't just faking it for the camera?" Whitley queried.

"She isn't called the 'Queen of Atlas Academy' for nothing." Iris quipped. "She's sometimes called the 'Pyrrha Nikos of Atlas'. She's just perfect. Too perfect."

"Like Pyrrha was?"

"Yeah, but she's dead..." Both eyes were now blue. "So I guess she wasn't perfect after all." There was a moment of silence. "Still, Claire's alive, and assuming she survives her final year at Atlas Academy, she'll be the youngest person to graduate from a huntsmen academy in all of history." Her eyes turned red. "And she already has numerous accomplishments in her life! And what do I have? Nothing!"

"Calm yourself, Iris. I know you're upset about your luck, but that will soon change." Whitley gave her a smile. "If you're willing to embrace the change."

Iris's eyes turned back to grey as mused to herself.

"Mr. Schnee, we have a problem. The giant painting of Beacon accidentally got destroyed during transport to the truck and to the Chateau." Irving reported.

"What?! How?!" He sighed heavily. "Never mind that. Just pick out a new one before the concert begins."

"Of course. Whitley, if I may ask for your assistance."

"Certainly. But first," He turned to Merla. "I need you to draw a warm bath for our guest here."

"Right away." The maid turned to Iris. "Would you like bubbles, mineral scrub or lavender oil?"

"Can I get all of them?" she requested.

"That can be arranged."

Merla quickly ran off to fulfill the task she was given.

Whitley looked at the knowledgeable butler. "Alright, Irving. Now we may go."

The two left to look at paintings. Sometime later, Iris was shown in a large bathtub/shower laying below in very warm water letting the bubbles cover her body. She splashed some water on her face and let her hair soak in the water. She closed her yellow eyes as if she was pretending to be asleep.

 _Ah, this feels_ really _nice._ _I have to say, Whitley is being really kind to me. I've never been shown this much kindness. Painting a beautiful picture for such a noble cause, which will soon be sold off to a wealthy upper-class elite. Could this be the night where my luck changes from bad to good? I hope so. But just try to relax for now._

She opened her eyes and smiled contentedly.

* * *

As Iris and Whitley tended to preparations for the upcoming concert and auction, Maura was shown setting on the suspended bench in her cell. She looked over at the wall where all her white chalk marks were- fifteen tally lines on the wall. Fifteen days she had been in the Catacombs as Mistral's most dangerous prisoner. She felt her eyes water, her heart pound and her stomach tighten. Try as she might, she couldn't help but cry.

 _The nightmare is about to come to brutal end._ the snake scaled faunus silently thought. _But why must it be like this?_

She felt a cold chill wash over her as she dried her tears. It was almost time. Even with the darkness surrounding her, Maura could feel that her end was soon to come.

 _I wish I could say this whole thing is a nightmare, and that I'll wake up at our campsite, but... I can't. The truth is that I failed._ More tears came down her face. _I failed Sienna, I failed the White Fang, I failed the Loyalists counting on me to restore order in Mistral and I failed to prove my innocence. And I failed to win the war. I failed and failed and failed._

She pinched herself with her right arm to remind her that she was awake and alive. _Even though I'm not dead, Athena has already won. Unless by some miracle, someone delivers me from this. Oh be real, Maura! You can't expect a miracle to save you._ She sighed heavily. _I'm about to go down in history as a villain. But if I'm really going down in infamy, how can I make a difference? Leave a good impact on the world?_

Before she could answer those questions, she heard a soft jingling of keys. Along with the sound of keys, she heard the sound of footsteps.

 _They're coming. Coming to take me away._ Both the keys and the footsteps got louder as they approached her cell. _It's time._ the Mistralian White Fang leader thought to herself, wiping away the last of her tears. _Say Goodbye._ _It's time to die._

Three guards showed up at her door. The third one, the same guy from earlier who held a flashlight, unlocked her cell and entered. The other two guards followed suit.

"It's time." the first one told her.

She put her hands in front of her, her wrists touching each other. The sign of surrender. "Take me away."

Two of the guards shoved her hands behind her back and hand-cuffed her. One took her right arm and the other took her left. They led her out of her cell, the third one closing and locking the door behind them. The third guard got in front of Maura and the two guards and led them through the dark prison with his light. As the guards took her by the arms, every prisoner in the cells watched as she was dragged forth. They all knew what was going to happen, and watched on somberly. Some were shocked by the light and their eyes hurt from seeing it. One prisoner, a female faunus with bunny ears, cried as she saw Maura being dragged to her death.

Eventually, the guards reached the stone staircase. As they dragged her up the stairs, she lifted her feet up and walked with the pace of her guards. She thought to herself, _Ascending the steps, out of the darkness to be engulfed by the light of their twisted justice. They don't even know I'm innocent, and they will never believe me. If I tried to protest my innocence during my parting speech, would they believe me?_

She continued to ponder her last words as the finished climbing the stairs to the first level of the prison. Unlike the last level, the first floor was lit by torches and artificial lights. They led her through the right hallway, the same hallway she was dragged in on the way in, and now she was on her way out.

 _My days in this prison have become hours. My hours minutes. Each minute is spent walking towards my death. But there is no turning back. Even if I tried to escape, the guards wouldn't let me get very far before I'm forcibly dragged to the execution grounds._

The guards reached the lobby of the first floor. She was lead up to the steps to the trapdoor.

 _No one outside the White Fang ever believed I was innocent. Except for..._ The trapdoor was opened and they reached the surface. _her..._

As the first guard turned off the flashlight, Maura stopped and looked up at the sky, painted with yellow and orange hues as the sun had almost completely set.

 _There it is. The setting sun in all its beauty. I get to see the sun one last time..._ the Mistralian White Fang leader thought.

"Keep moving." the second guard said.

They gestured her forward to the stone door as the third guard got out a key. He unlocked the stone door and let the other two guards and Maura go forth. Once they entered, the first guard shut the door behind him.

Maura looked at the execution grounds. In the lower left corner, there was a gallows for victims to be hanged. In the upper left corner, there was a large cross for victims to be crucified. In the center was a large red rug in front of a stone wall, presumably for victims to be shot at by a firing squad. In the lower right corner, there was a guillotine for victims to be decapitated. But none of them were the punishment that Maura would face.

As she took in everything behind her, she then turned in front of her to her fate- a large wooden stake in the ground with a ten inch diameter circle surrounded by stones. She gasped quietly as she learned her fate- she was to be burned at the stake. She closed her eyes sadly as they undid the handcuffs and grabbed her arms. With the second and third guards holding onto her arms, the first one tied a rope around her hands and her arms. The other guards moved out of the way as the first guard continued to bind her.

Maura opened her eyes and the warden, a man with black hair and even blacker eyes, came into view. He stood wearing a black military-like uniform and ordered his men, "Get the firewood. We're going to need a lot of it."

The three guards ran off to fulfill the warden's order.

 _It's over. No one can save me now..._ Maura thought silently. _I'm just the sacrifice... A catalyst for war I never wanted to fight. A war that has been lost...  
_

The guards returned to the site within thirty seconds and swiftly built her pyre. They soon got out match packets and got out a match.

"Well, Maura Celandine, you've reached the end." the warden stated. "Any last words you'd like to say before we begin your execution?"

The snake scaled faunus looked around and her eyes met the setting sun. She turned back to her executioners.

"Yes. Normally, I would use this time to protest my innocence, but it seems that no matter what I say or do, you find me guilty. So I leave you with this warning; Do not be so quick to judge others or deem someone as a criminal, for they may not be guilty at all. Things are not always what they seem to be. And let these words be known throughout the kingdom and all of Remnant- Pyrrha Nikos is alive, and she is innocent."

She remained silent.

"I'm surprised she isn't protesting her innocence." the first guard spoke.

The warden grimaced in contemplation. "Let's get this over with. Set her on fire!"

The guards lit their matches and dropped them onto the stake. As Maura began to burn, suffering in pain, she remained silent. The physical pain of her demise was nothing compared to the feeling of failure she felt earlier. To an extent, she still felt it. With the smoke, it was becoming harder and harder to breathe.

 _Sienna..._ she thought as she suffered. _Forgive me, High Leader... I_ _have failed you. We've lost. The Loyalists have failed and the Revolutionists have won..._ _The sun will set for good as the shattered moon brings forth an everlasting night to the Fang._ _I'm going down in history as a villain, and Athena will take my place. I am the sacrifice, the price payed for her crimes. What's worse is that they never saw my innocence. And they will never see the truth. My days became hours, hours became minutes, and now, my minutes mere seconds. It's over for me..._ She wanted to cry, but there was no moisture in her eyes to form tears. _I can only hope that my last words will change the world for the better and hope that she does not suffer my fate. Farewell, Remnant..._

Within minutes, she suffocated and closed her eyes for the last time. Maura Celandine was now dead. As her body continued to be consumed by fire, the sun had set and the shattered moon had yet to rise. As the camera showed the sky with the last few rays of orange and yellow at the bottom and a light blue night sky at the top, black smoke from below rose into the air, signaling the end of a war. The everlasting night had begun.


	71. No Looking Back

Orange and yellow colors painted the sky in Mistral along with the darkening blue night sky. Athena was shown flying in the air, high enough above Mistral city to avoid being seen, but low enough to see the events unfolding below. From where she stood in the air, the sun was below her. She saw the smoke rising up in the air before dissipating in black wisps. Maura Celandine, leader of the Mistralian White Fang, was dead, executed by fire. And Athena had finally won.

"At last, she is gone." Athena spoke to the smoke-filled air. She made an angry face as she looked at the smoke. "Maura, you have held us back for too long." She folded her arms and her frown shifted to a smirk. "'Tis a pity that you won't be here for my finest moment. So long and good riddance."

Without another word, she flew away, leaving the fire and smoke behind her.

The scene transitioned to a campsite a few miles from Mistral city. As the sunset colors faded, Ares and the five specialists stood outside in the center of the camp, with Marrok on the lookout. Tawny's black hair dye had faded over the weeks, but she still retained the same casual outfit from before.

"She's coming in! Make way for our leader!" Marrok announced.

Athena smiled as she slowed her pace and gradually descended to the ground. Upon landing, she was greeted by her closest allies.

"Athena! We are glad to see your return!" Ares greeted.

Aoi looked at her curiously. "So what news do you bring?"

"Gather the messenger squad." she ordered. "Maura is dead. The time to takeover is now!"

Within a few minutes, all twenty one messengers, including Negra, stood in the center of the camp. Ares and the specialists stood to the side as Athena flew a few feet above the messengers.

"Twenty one messengers of the Lady. Go through every corner of the kingdom and tell everyone in the White Fang that Maura is dead and that Athena has taken her place as the new Mistralian White Fang leader. You know your task. Now go!" the 'war goddess' commanded.

The messengers dispersed and ran in different directions. Some north, some south, some east, some west. They would go to every corner of Mistral to inform the White Fang of their new leader.

"So, Lady Athena. As the new Mistralian White Fang leader, what is your first move?" Marrok asked.

"We will need to find or build a new building to serve as our headquarters. We will have to go someplace hidden and obscure. Wind Path will suit us perfectly." She smirked. "There is no time to lose. Marrok, Aoi, Gilford, and Cola, tell everyone that we're moving out tonight." Athena declared. "Tell them to be ready to move within the hour. Once done, pack up your own bags."

The four specialists left to do their assigned task. Tawny asked, "Is there anything I can do?"

"You are perfectly alright, my dear." Athena answered. "Besides, I wanted to congratulate you. Without your help, this never would have been possible."

"Really?" Athena nodded in the affirmative. Tawny smiled bashfully. "Wow... I'm... touched... I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to. Just know that I appreciate all the extra hard work you've done."

Tawny's face flushed from embarrassment. "Well, uh, you're welcome."

"And thank you."

"I suppose I'll start packing my things."

She gave a swift bow to her lady and left to pack up. The scene transitioned to Athena speaking with Ares in their tent.

"I must say, my partner in crime, this is going along better than I expected." she told him.

Ares expressed his concern. "But I'm surprised that Sienna didn't rush to Maura's defense."

"Maybe Sienna never found her in time?" Athena suggested.

"No matter. We will carry on."

She sighed. "I just hope that she won't interfere."

Ares raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't you think of a backup plan in case Sienna does find us?"

"Yes. Perhaps I can think of one while we're on the road."

Ares got out his scroll. "It's almost time."

"It _is_ time." She kissed him. "Let's move."

She left the tent and Ares followed suit, with the scene transitioning to the open woods. The camp was no longer there, the Revolutionists had packed their bags and stood ready to begin the trek to Wind Path. Athena and Ares stood in the front, with the five specialists behind them. The rest of the crew were carrying things in large wooden wagons pulled by mules or on large dollies. As they started the trek, Ares took Athena's hand and she smiled.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ozpin was traveling through the Mistralian woods. The shattered moon illuminated the long and lonely road he had been on for the last few weeks.

 _Alright. Just another week's worth of walking, and we'll be there._ Ozpin told himself. _Oh boy..._

 _Can't you walk faster?_ the hermit asked.

 _What's the rush? It's not like he'll be able to save the world immediately._ the drunkard retaliated.

 _But the world is descending into chaos!_ a new voice protested.

 _Shouldn't you be used to that, since you left your two children and wife behind to save the day?_ asked the guy who had to wait two years.

 _Hey, I survived that ordeal!_ the settler quipped.

Oz tried to drown out their voices by thinking to himself. And his thoughts led him back to the last few moments of his life.

"This whole time... right beneath our feet. She was right about you." Cinder spoke. Ozpin turned his cane in his grip, glaring at Cinder. "Such arrogance." The two stood still for a moment. "And such arrogance will bring your downfall."

Cinder pulled out her weapon, Midnight, in its bow form and fired a barrage of arrows of Ozpin. The headmaster took his staff and spun it around as a shield to block them. Seeing as she was getting nowhere, she used her semblance to turn her bow into two glass swords. She swung at her opponent, only for him to avoid each move. He then knocked the swords out of her hands and she used her semblance to form glass shards, taking out almost all of what little light was in the room. She threw fireballs blindly, trying to find him and end him.

 _Looks like I don't have much of a choice here..._ Ozpin thought to himself.

Flashes of green and scarlet light in arcs were illuminated in the darkness. More of those flashes were shown as Ozpin and Cinder Fall clashed weapons against each other. After a clash, Cinder slid back, using her hand to melt the floor below her, and summoned ice crystals from the newly-formed substance, hurling them towards Ozpin. He deflected them all by moving at superhuman speed, and then darts forward and delivers a series of strikes at Cinder with his cane, with the last blow launching her back. Unleashing her Maiden power, Cinder levitated in the air above as fire swarmed around her. Ozpin slammed his cane into the floor, forming a spherical force-field around him. The Fall Maiden unleashed a powerful fire blast, with the headmaster leaping into the attack with the barrier protecting him.

Ozpin remembered the strain he felt trying to hold his barrier shield, for as an old man, magic didn't flow as easily to him. And as Cinder increased the pressure of the fire ray at him, he felt the feeling of his end coming.

 _Glydna, Qrow, Ironwood... Stop her..._ he prayed.

And he was right. For within a matter of seconds, the fire broke the barrier. Immediately after, she put both her arms forward, channeling the fire forward, which flash-incinerated him.

There was a rush of fire, a rush of wind and a loss of consciousness.

When Ozpin's spirit woke up, he found that Cinder was gone, but Amber's lifeless body was still there. He looked at new form; his green specter and looked at the Long Memory. He sighed sadly.

 _How long have I been out?_ Oz thought to himself.

 _A few hours._ the hermit answered.

 _Tell me that Beacon is safe._

 _I'm afraid not._ the drunkard responded.

 _No... What happened?_

 _Well, you might wanna come up and see for yourself._

Ozpin teleported from the vault to the ground above. He saw Grimm everywhere. If he had any tears, he would have sobbed.

 _We failed..._

The feeling of crushing failure that night was even more painful than being burned alive.

As Ozpin came back to reality, the voices of his predecessors were heard once again.

 _We keep getting weaker and weaker._ the old man said.

 _I'm honestly worried this new guy doesn't stand a chance against the threats he will soon face._ the long-awaited successor stated.

 _Even worse, it seems my plan to unify the world has gone out the window._ a regal voice said.

 _Can we really get the world back on track before something major happens?_ the inquisitor asked.

Ozpin sighed. _I can only hope so. There's no looking back. All we can do is move forward and hope for the best._

* * *

Over in Atlas, Iris was making her way towards the Grand Chateau Concert Hall. The camera was zoomed to show her purple winter coat and her newly gifted slate blue gloves as she walked by a store. Through the tinted glass, she looked at herself- her hair was neatly brushed, styled into a side bun on her left and her purple eyes reflected her fear and nervousness. She was nervous, but she felt that she had no reason to be. She was a spectator, not a performer.

 _Just calm down, Iris. You've done your part. Your painting will sell. You look fine enough to be a member of the upper class._ She closed her eyes and breathed in to calm herself a few times. When she stopped, she opened her eyes and they were grey. _Now it's time to get to the concert._

After calming herself, she continued making her way to the concert hall. As she stood in line, she noticed the attire of the other attendees. The woman wore dresses in various hues, usually cocktail style, men in tuxedos or suits, and some members even had fur coats.

The painter's eyes turned blue for a moment as she thought to herself, _Do I really look good enough?_

"Ticket please." the man said, disrupting her thought.

Her eyes turned back to grey. "Oh, of course. Just a moment please." She reached into her right coat pocket and handed him a ticket. He tore off the end of it and gave it back to her.

"Thank you. Enjoy the show."

She smiled, pocketed her ticket and went on her way to the coat room as her eyes turned yellow. She took off her gloves and put them in the right pocket of her coat. After taking off her coat, she saw a mirror and gazed upon her outfit; a long sleeveless dress in a rainbow color scheme, with each layer of color going horizontally down her body. The top of the dress was red, with a faux red rose bud on her right strap. The pattern continued as follows- the bosom was orange, her stomach area yellow, hips to thighs green, thighs to knees blue, knees to shin indigo, and the hem of the dress was purple, stopping at her ankles. To complete her outfit, she wore two inch purple heels, a faux pearl necklace taught around her neck and faux square-shaped diamond earrings.

 _Who knows? Maybe they won't notice you._ She internally laughed to herself. _Come on, you're wearing a rainbow dress. You better just get going.  
_

So she did. She went to the Opera Hall and found her seat- front row even. As she sat down and silenced her scroll, Iris couldn't believe her luck. From tramp to an artist once her painting sold. This is, _if_ her painting sold.

She breathed in again to calm herself.

 _If this painting sells, maybe I should invest a small sum of money for stress balls._ She laughed to herself. _Here's to hoping for the best._

* * *

As Weiss stood backstage, she stood sadly, mostly alone with her thoughts. Sitting on a small black bench, Bianca warmed up her fingers by gently stretching them, humming Mirror Mirror softly to herself.

The heiress turned away and looked at the blue curtains backstage. _I don't want to be alone, but yet I feel alone now more than ever. How can I forget all the pain of the past? How can I go to Atlas when the ghosts of Beacon haunt me each day?_

She looked at a group picture of team RWBY, JNPR and SSSN on her scroll, taken right before the Vytal Festival Tournament. They all stood in front of the statue in Beacon Courtyard, smiling like nothing could go wrong. As she felt her eyes water up from the picture, she made an effort to keep them from falling and realized...

 _It's time to move on._ _I can't let anyone or anything control my life. I'm the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, and a semi-pro huntress. The road in Beacon may have been destroyed, but perhaps I can still forge a new one in Atlas._ _There's no looking back._ _As soon as the concert's over, I will tell father that I wish to go to Atlas Academy. I must bid the past and everyone in it farewell. Adieu, Yang, Blake and Ruby... May you succeed in your endeavors._ _To Sun, Scarlet, Sage and Neptune... Wherever you are, I hope you're doing well._ _Sayonara, Ren, Nora and Jaune. May you find your way in this dark, ever changing world._

She heard the owner of the concert hall walk onto the stage and press test the microphone.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Schnee Dust Company Charity Concert and Art Auction." he greeted them. "We are very happy to see you join us tonight..."

As he spoke to the audience, Weiss silently bid the last farewell.

 _Farewell..._ She internally sobbed as a tear fell from her eyes, which fell down her cheek and landed on the ground. _Pyrrha... May you rest in peace._

"And now, without further delay, may I present to you our special guest stars; the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss Schnee. Also featuring on the piano Bianca Delaney."

Applause was heard throughout the auditorium. Weiss breathed in, letting go of her sorrow and entered the stage along with a calm Bianca. She made her way to the standing microphone as Bianca made her way to the piano. She looked to the pianist and nodded, and she nodded as she began the first song. It was time for the royal test to begin.

[cue RWBY music- The Path to Isolation]

A single note was played before Weiss added her sad, soft voice into the sound. Soon other instruments joined the pianist and vocalist. The concert was off to a good start.


	72. This Life is Mine

The first song went very well. As soon as the applause for the first song died down, Bianca got up and stood to the side as Weiss moved to the piano. She moved the piano's microphone closer to her and after taking a few moments to stretch her fingers, she began to play.

[cue RWBY music- Mirror Mirror]

As her fingers hit the notes on the keys, she almost hesitated, creating a brief pause. But she soon remembered what to do, and hardly anyone in the audience knew better. She continued playing the piano beautifully, and at the right time, added her voice to sing the lyrics.

Weiss forgot about the pain of Beacon as the second song continued and let her thoughts wonder upon getting to the rapid piano scales. But as she mused with the music, she didn't miss a single note.

 _Do I really want to be among the upper class elite in Atlas?_

* * *

As the concert continued, Qrow was shown in his bird form looking over the city of Aquarian, with the sun out of the sky, and the sky gradually turning darker. He looked ahead at the city, with its long wooden fence, the rural village part and the modern city part, including the park that overlapped both areas. Throughout the city, he saw the wanted posters.

 _Wanted posters of Pyrrha... That's not a good sign. I would think that Ruby and team JNPR wouldn't dare set foot in this forbidden city._ Another thought. _But what if they did? Maybe Ruby and the other three entered and Pyrrha didn't. Or maybe Pyrrha disguised herself to gain entry. But why would they even be here in the first place?_ He sighed. _I need answers._ He looked at the guards patrolling the southern gate then the northern gate. _There's security at both entrances._ _I could just go through the front entrance... Or I could simply bypass it._

He flew down to the city and landed on a lamppost in the newer part of the city. He looked around, not seeing anyone in the streets.

 _Hmm... Where do I go from here? Do I fly down and turn back to human? Or do I scope out the city in bird form? There's nobody here. As long as I keep a low profile, I could scope the city out in my human form. Still..._

His train of thought was derailed when he saw Edom walking on the streets alone. He was wearing a pair of black dress pants and a white blouse. He also wore black dress shoes and socks.

 _Perhaps he can lead me to answers._

The drunken bird chose to follow him through the city. Edom payed no attention to the bird or to his surroundings. As he walked forward, his trail lead him and the bird to the Old Aquarian Public Library. The red-haired man entered the library and Qrow hid himself behind a nearby tree. He changed back to human form, looking around to make sure it was deserted and entered the establishment.

Inside the library, Qrow stayed a good distance from Edom as the latter went forward. He eventually reached the circulation desk where the librarian was sorting out children's books by the author's last name.

"Hey, Eric!" Edom greeted.

"Hey Edom! My man!" Eric smiled and greeted. "How did your shift go?"

"We were very busy, which was good, but also kinda stressful." he answered as Eric got up from his desk. "Two of servers were absent and we had a full house tonight. I managed to step up big time and raked in a lot of tip money, but boy it was hard."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "You're not used to working this kind of job, are you?"

"Can't say that I am. But it's better than nothing. Thanks again for agreeing to babysit Gliss while I work."

"No problem. I mean, it's a win-win. You got someone to look after Gliss so you can work, and I have a regular patron so that I can keep my business open."

"I'm very happy for you, albeit I fear that since Scarlatti has shut down nearly all radio stations and newspaper businesses, save for the ones she owns that serve her, I fear she may come for your library too."

Eric looked anxious and depressed. "Don't say such things. Gliss loves this place. I don't want to imagine how heartbroken she would be."

"Speaking of which, where is she?"

The librarian pointed far out to his right. "She's over in the children's section in the back where all the picture-less books are. She's already read through everything with pictures in a matter of weeks!"

"Man, she's going to be the smartest girl in the whole city one day!"

Edom started to walk forward to find his daughter.

"Hmm... Which one should I take?" a tiny female voice mused to herself.

As Edom turned to see his daughter looking at a bookshelf, Gliss cradled a small thick book in her left arm. Edom smiled with pride. "There's my little snowflake."

"Daddy!"

Taking the book into her left hand, she threw her arms around her father. Since the two were distracted in each other's embrace, Qrow believed now would be the best time to speak to the librarian without anyone else noticing. He slowly made his way forward, only for his luck to fail him. As he walked quickly and quietly, he tripped and fell down. He tried to stifle a scream, but he was still heard.

Gliss was startled. "Huh?"

Eric turned in his direction. "Who's there?!"

"Look, I mean no harm." Qrow stated, getting up.

Edom looked at him as he made his way forward. "He looks like a huntsman."

Eric looked at Edom questionably. "Aside from Scarlatti's bodyguards, I thought all the huntsman left with the alliance and that the five remaining huntresses stayed here to defend the city in case of an emergency. So who are you?"

"I'm a huntsman, but I'm actually far from home. I need your help actually." He got out his scroll and showed two pictures; one of Ruby in front of Beacon's statue and the other of team JNPR from the Vytal Festival. "I'm looking for my niece Ruby Rose and her friends. Have any of you seen them?"

"We have. Ruby and team JNPR were just here a couple weeks ago. We actually provided a place for them to stay." Edom answered.

"And I saw Ruby here at the library." Eric gestured to Edom and Gliss. "She even introduced me to these nice folks here."

Qrow nodded. "Alright, I can see that. Although there's a few things that don't make sense."

"Such as?"

"I've been seeing posters for something called the Trojan Alliance everywhere. What exactly is this Trojan Alliance?"

The three took turns explaining to Qrow about the Trojan Alliance, how Scarlatti had allied herself with them and corrupted the city as a result of her allegiance, how Pyrrha had come to the city disguised as Rouge Gorlois, how Scarlatti discovered Pyrrha's ruse, and sent a force of thirty fighters after her and her friends in retaliation. By the end of it, Qrow looked anxious.

"Oh Gods..."

"I know. It's a lot to hear." Eric solemly stated.

He sighed. "It's already bad enough knowing that an unknown maniac is after Ruby, and now Scarlatti sent her goons after Pyrrha and all her friends?" The birdman sighed heavily and took a sip from his flask. "How many skilled fighters are in Scarlatti's alliance?"

"Four huntsmen, one fighter who's supposedly just as skilled, two police officers, three veterans. That's ten decent or excellent fighters in the Scarlatti Alliance." Eric answered. "Everyone else is a civilian."

"Any idea what these guys look like?"

Eric gave the scarecrow an issue of Red Spring news. "Sure. Front page."

Qrow looked at the headline of the newspaper- **Scarlatti Sends Her Own Trojan Alliance Group to Defeat the Metalbending Murderess and Her Friends  
**

"Well, that's rude..." he remarked about the title. He looked at the picture on the front page. All the volunteers were shown on stage, with team SOLR and a fifth man shown by their side. "Wait a second." He pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. It was a list of characteristics as to what Ruby's hunter/Yang's attacker looked like. He looked at the list, then at the man in the photo. He did this three times before he gasped. "Oh no..."

"What is it?"

"That guy right there, next to team SOLR, matches the description Yang gave me of the man she said was after Ruby. And now he's joined forces with Scarlatti's Alliance!" Everyone else raised their eyebrows in fear.

Qrow put the newspaper away as Eric asked him, "Do you really think that Scarlatti's Alliance will catch up to them?"

"I can't take that chance." Qrow answered, starting to walk away.

"Wait!" Gliss stated. Qrow turned back to her. "I don't know if this helps you, but I read the newspaper and they mentioned the name of every volunteer in the order they joined the group. The man with team SOLR was the last one to join, he looked so confident and evil. His name is stated to be Tyrian."

"Tyrian. Good to know. Thank you, Pipsqueak." He sighed. "Hopefully I can find Tyrian, and the rest of the alliance, before they find Ruby and team JNPR."

* * *

Team SOLR, Tyrian and the other members of Scarlatti's Trojan Alliance were seen traveling through the outskirts of Vale well after the sun had set over eastern Sanus. There were numerous horse-drawn carts, all of which were carrying supplies and passengers on the snow covered road. In the very front was team SOLR and Tyrian, and Surya was holding onto the reins. Behind them to their left were the two police officers and the three veterans, with the lady cop holding the reins. To their right were civilians, and the remaining three carts behind them was the rest of their party. The carts behind the leading cart formed small parallel lines save for the last cart being in the very back behind them all. The last cart showed five worried civilians, one of which was a preteen girl with choppy hair and bandages over her right arm. Everyone was shown wearing a horse emblem pin of the Trojan Alliance on their chest.

The camera turned back to team SOLR and Tyrian. Orville looked at the underside of his right hand, which showed a glowing gold R shaped rune.

"How much aura do you have left?" Surya asked his teammate.

Orville looked ahead, and the camera showed a slowly fading golden trail. "Not much. The path's becoming dimmer. Probably about fifteen percent if I had to guess."

The gold trail disappeared as the camera turned back to the leader. "How many miles is Pyrrha from our current location?"

"She's about 550 miles away from us and less than a half mile from Mensonge."

"Maybe we should stop for the night. For in the sky there is no light." Apollo spoke.

"No one's been complaining about hunger or fatigue, but I'm sure our recruits probably want food." Atum added. "And a break."

 _This isn't going as fast as I would have hoped. We've been on the road for a little over two weeks, covered nearly two hundred miles and we're_ still _really_ _far away from JNPR-Ruby. How are we going to find Pyrrha, and in turn, Ruby so that I may capture her?_ Tyrian silently thought.

"You're awfully silent, Tyrian." Surya said. "Any thoughts you'd like to add?"

"Not really. I'm not much of a people person." the scorpion man responded.

"Understandable." Surya remarked. He looked at his scroll for the time; 9:55pm. "Oh boy, it's later than I thought. It's time we rest and prepare. Orville, stop using Blazing Trail."

The leader stopped their horse from moving and everyone else followed suit. As they came to a stop, the glowing rune disappeared from Orville's wrist.

"What's going on?" the preteen asked.

"We're stopping here for tonight." Surya answered. "You all know the drill by now, so no need to explain. Orville, rest up. You'll need it."

As the members of Scarlatti's Trojan Alliance had been on the road for over two weeks at this point, life had become pretty routine. Evening encampment was a time of rest and of preparation. After stopping for the evening, everyone unpacked their tents and sleeping bags and prepared for the next day. Some worked in food preservation, some did hunting and forging, some worked in making arrows for the archers, and others were just resting.

Surya got to work on creating and reviewing a list of who was on night time watchdog duty. Orville set up his team's tents and immediately crashed in his thereafter. Apollo made a makeshift pen for the horses, and Atum quickly got to work on dinner, preparing a big pot of stew for everyone.

During the period before dinner was served, Tyrian did a wide variety of things after setting up his tent. Sometimes he was helping out team SOLR, sometimes he sat around and tried to devise a strategy for defeating Ruby. Tonight he was practicing with his wooden sword. He swung the blade horizontally, then vertically. He repeated this motion a few times before sighing heavily.

 _What damage will this do to Ruby or any of the heroes?_ Tyrian thought to himself.

"Ah, practicing your swordsmanship?" Surya inquired off-screen.

Tyrian looked behind him and saw the leader of team SOLR standing there. "I don't want to complain, but it does feel weird not using my arm blades during combat practice."

He looked at the weapon that was folded on his arm bracers. "You know why we have to do this." the leader began. "If Pyrrha knows you're using ax arm blades, she could disarm you with the wave of her hand."

 _I'm not even going to be facing her..._ he silently thought.

"Therefore you have to be prepared for the worst." Surya finished. "Besides, you have the easiest wooden weapon."

He sighed. "I suppose that is true."

All those who were weaponless or did not have a non-metallic weapon were given the choice of one wooden weapon to master; sword, staff or bow and arrow. Tyrian, like most of the recruits, chose the sword. Only five chose the wooden staff while everyone else chose the bow and arrows.

"You've never worked with swords, have you?" Surya inquired after a moment of silence.

"I have... a little. It's just been a long time." Tyrian smiled. "But worry not, Surya. It's all coming back to me and soon I'll be ready."

Apollo came up to them. "The horses are secured, safe and sound. Making it so that they can be found."

"Excellent." Surya turned to Tyrian with a concerned look. "Tyrian, can I ask you something?"

He sighed, but gave an emotionless expression as he replied, "Sure..."

"Why did you chose to join this group?" the red-gem man asked. "You don't seem to have many team-building or social skills, you opted to train alone instead of working with your fellow recruits, and you don't seem to be very enthused about fighting Pyrrha."

"Well I was just passing through Aquarian, and I was moved by Mayor Scarlatti's speech. I believed you could use my help in your mission, considering that you don't have very many people who are trained in combat. And don't take my anti-social behavior as reluctance. I truly believe that Pyrrha is evil, and wish to help you defeat her."

Although neither of them noticed, Apollo looked worried after Tyrian finished speaking.

"I see your point now. Apollo," Surya began. His expression turned back to normal. "you will be training the archers right after dinner. Tell Atum that he will train our staff-wielders. I will take the wooden sword recruits." Apollo nodded in comprehension before he walked away. "Well Tyrian, I will leave you be. Good luck with your training."

The leader left the scorpion man behind. He sheathed his wooden sword and smirked to himself. _Ha! How easy it is to deceive them!_ Tyrian thought. _They think that I'll be fighting Pyrrha. They think they're the ones in charge, especially that pain-in-the-rear Surya. Oh, how wrong they are! But soon that won't matter. In a matter of time, I'll be pulling the strings on my new puppets._

* * *

Meanwhile, as the Scarlatti Trojan Alliance started unwinding for the day, team JNPR-Ruby was still trekking through the outskirts of Vale.

"Alright guys, we're almost at Mensonge." Jaune told his teammates. "About another half mile or so... Maybe even a quarter of a mile. After that we got a few more villages to go; Aletheia, Aldwy, and Omega. Once we get to Omega, we'll be able to board a ship to a village in Mistral or Anima, and we'll be home free. Well, mostly."

"I still can't believe Vale made a ban on all non-evacuation air traffic." Nora remarked. Her eyebrows perked up. "Wait, did you say Mensonge?"

"Isn't that a city of liars and thieves?" Ruby asked.

"That's what I've heard, but it can't be any worse than Aquarian, which is under Scarlatti's dictatorship." Jaune told her.

"Jaune, I hate to burst your bubble, but you might want to look again." 'Rouge' spoke. The faux fashion model pointed to the wanted posters of Pyrrha Nikos and Trojan Alliance emblem on the wooden fence around the village, which strangely enough, was unguarded.

"Another village associated with the Trojan Alliance." Jaune said with a lack of enthusiasm. "Yay."

"Hey, Ren, Nora, you got any tips to survive this place?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"I can't say that we do." Nora sadly answered. "We've never been here."

"We were always told to avoid this place." Ren elaborated. "Out of all the villages and cities in the outskirts of Vale, this is said by many to be the worst of them. To some, it's like a smaller, non-desert version of Vacuo. Crimes are high, there's very little in the way of laws and social order, and, according to rumor, the city may possibly be victim to frequent Grimm attacks. Also I don't know how kindly they'd treat a 'huntress' and former Beacon students."

"Doesn't sound like a good place." Ruby stated.

"I don't like the idea of staying here." 'Rouge' told her teammates.

"Neither do I." Ren added. "But if there's a bunch of Grimm in these parts, maybe it would be safer to stay here."

Nora asked in a whining tone, "Do we have to stay here?"

"We could. I mean, 'Rouge' can pull the wool over people's eyes."

"Let's put this to a vote." Jaune suggested. "Who wants to go into the village?" Ren, Ruby and 'Rouge' each raised their hand. Jaune looked depressed. "Who doesn't want to go Mensonge?" He and Nora raised a hand.

"Wow. For once Nora and Jaune agree on something." Ren remarked.

"Well, we've been outvoted either way." The knight sighed. "Into the village we go."

Nora pouted. "I can't believe we're doing this."

"Neither can I." Jaune lamented.

They continued walking on the dirt road, with light snow shown on the grass beside them. The quintet quietly entered the village and took in their surroundings. Mensonge consisted mainly of log cabins and small houses constructed out of stone. There were a number of merchant stands, which were currently closed. There was an inn up ahead, with a shield-shaped hanging sign visible in the distance. They heard sounds of a fight in the distance.

"We better get going." 'Rouge' stated.

Ren, Ruby, 'Rouge' and Nora went forth, with a worried Jaune lagging behind them.

* * *

[cue RWBY Music- This Life is Mine, starting at "I'm shattering the mirror..."]

The scene switched to the Opera Hall of the Grand Chateau Concert Hall, where Weiss's concert was about to end. Just like in the beginning part, Weiss stood at the microphone while Bianca sat at the piano. As the last entirely instrumental part was heard, the audience was enthralled in the talent of the orchestra and their special guitarist.

 _It's time for things to change. Because this life is mine, and I can't let father or anyone else control me._ Weiss thought.

At the right time, the heiress added her voice back into the mixture of sound and eventually sang the last verse with powerful emotion behind it.

 _"I'm not your pet, not another thing you own. I was not born guilty of your crimes. Your riches and your influence can't hold me anymore. I won't be possessed, burdened by your royal test. I will not surrender. This life is mine."_

Weiss concluded her song and bowed as the audience applauded for her. She looked to the ground floor of the opera hall, with many cheering for her, a joyous Iris among them. She felt so moved that she stood up, and most others soon followed. Above the stage left in the balcony, her father and brother were watching. Jacques Schnee remained seated, not applauding, while Whitley Schnee stood giving a slow, sarcastic clap.

 _Perfect. You've played your part well Weiss._ Whitley thought. _I'm_ almost _there._


	73. End of the Dream

At the SDC Charity Concert reception, many upper class elites stood in the reception room. Some of them were holding drinks in their hands, some were in conversation. As Iris stepped into the room, she tried to fight a feeling of nervousness in her stomach. She hoped that no one noticed her purple eyes reflecting fear. A few servants from the Schnee family manor were carrying trays of drinks.

 _I feel so out of place._ Iris thought to herself.

She slowly wandered through the room, calming herself by breathing until her eyes were grey. The painter heard bits and pieces of conversations as she made her way to the only people she knew. As she stood by the side, unnoticed by Jacques, his business partners, or his two children, she realized she was hearing the near end of a conversation.

"Look, no one asked them to move here." the businesswoman remarked.

"But companies like the SDC promised jobs." the businessman retaliated.

Unbeknownst to Jacques and Whitley, Weiss slipped away as Jacques turned back to his companions. "I'm sorry, I tuned out for a second, but it sounds like I'm the good guy again?"

Jacques and the businesswoman shared a laugh. As Iris continued to be a wallflower, she let her thoughts wander, her eyes turning purple once again.

 _Am I really good enough to be standing among the upper class elite of Atlas? What if they think my dress or my hair doesn't look right? What if they see my eyes and think I'm a freak? What if someone recognizes me and calls me out for the Painted Wall incident? What if they remind me of how I ran away from the aftermath of the fight and dropped out of Atlas?_ She sighed. _Maybe I shouldn't be here..._

As the businessman had left to get drinks, Iris breathed to calm herself and let her eyes turn grey before approaching them.

"Ah, Ms. Khloris. Glad you could join us." Jacques greeted.

"Well, I must admit, you certainly clean up nicely." Whitley stated. Iris's eyes turned green as she raised an eyebrow. The young man quickly realized his mistake. "My apologies. I shouldn't have said that. You really do look gorgeous."

"No, no, you have the right to say that." She smiled, her eyes turning yellow. "You saw me with paint stains on my casual clothes for goodness sake. And thanks for the compliment."

"You're welcome."

"So how are you enjoying the reception?" Jacques asked.

Her left eye turned purple. "Excited, but kind of nervous if I be honest. I'm not really sure who to talk to or even what to say."

"You could speak with us. We won't bite." Whitley suggested.

She lightly chuckled, her eye turned back to yellow. "I guess that's true. You are the only ones I know here, and I've never been a 'people person'."

"You know, there is something I've been wanting to ask you."

The painter gave him a curious look. "And what might that be?"

"How is it that you, Iris, have a colorful first name when your elder brothers and mother do not?"

"Ah, an excellent question. You see, the legacy of fighters in the family doesn't begin with my mother." Iris began. "No, there have been several fighters and front-liners in my family for generations. Prior to the Great War, my family was known as the Armstrong's, and they were well-revered in Atlas for military service and heroic deeds. Many were soldiers, some rose through the ranks to become leaders, and even a small few were warriors. Some were even part of the Great War. After the war ended, they changed their last name to Khloris because they couldn't think of creative first names. They also wanted to keep the tradition of recycling names.

"Due to the roll of the dice, almost all family members born into the Armstrong/Khloris family line were male. My mother was the first female to be born since the surname change. When she was born, her parents couldn't think of any names to give her, much less a creative one. So they named her the first thing that came to mind. Both of my brothers were named after their ancestors who fought in the war. William was named after Edward William Khloris, our great-grandfather while Alexander was named after Alexander Henry Armstrong, Edward's brother who was promoted to general during the fifth year of the Great War. He fought bravely in the Battle of Aramoor, but sadly perished at the hands of the Grimm.

"Since females were born so rarely in the family, no one was expecting another girl for at least thirty to sixty years or possibly longer. When my parents learned they were expecting me, mother was trying to figure out which war hero to name me after, only for dad to remind him that I could be a girl. And so the two made a bet; if I was a boy, mother would name me and if I was a girl, father would get to name me. They even went in blind to make things interesting." She smirked. "Needless to say, mother lost that bet." She sighed contentedly. "Unfortunately, I have no memory of that day as a newborn infant, but my father always told me that the look on her face was priceless and he wished he had a camera. And so, dad named me Iris, after his favorite flower."

"So fighting runs deep in your blood." Whitley concluded.

"Yeah, it seems inescapable sometimes. Trying to be anything but a fighter." She sighed, her eyes turning blue. "It feels like I'm fighting the world at times."

"Why would you be fighting the world?" a familiar male voice asked.

Iris didn't answer as Jacques greeted, "Ah, General Ironwood. I thought you said you weren't coming."

"That was my original intention, but after a brief debate with myself, I decided some fresh air and time outside the office would do me some good." he responded.

As their conversation continued, Whitley bit his tongue and did his best to keep a straight face. _Oh crap! I forgot Ironwood was going to be here! If he reveals the truth, my plan is ruined!_

He snuck away from them and looked around the reception room. There were three servants passing out glasses of water and various beverages. He noticed Iris standing aside and taking some hor d'oeuvres a butler was passing around. Whitley turned back to Ironwood.

 _I need to get him out of here. But how?_

He looked over at Irving, who was hiding behind a curtain in the upper left corner of the room adjacent to the door. He turned away from him.

 _The distraction would have to be outside the room. But it's not like I can slip out of the room to distract Ironwood and give Irving the signal at the same time. I need someone else to distract the general._

Whitley looked at Merla, one of the many servants, as she walked around with a tray of glasses filled with fruit punch.

 _Perfect. She'll do nicely._

As soon as the last drinks were taken by guests, he subtly made his way over to the maid and gently, yet swiftly grabbed her arm and took her behind a large potted plant in the upper left corner of the room.

"Master?" Merla asked in confusion and alarm. "What's this about?"

"I mean you no harm, Merla." Whitley answered. "I just need you to do me a favor..."

"Okay. What is it?" He gestured for her to come closer and whispered into Merla's ear. The maid raised an eyebrow with a look of disgust and confusion. "You want me to do _what_?"

"Keep it down." Whitley whispered. "I know it may sound scandalous, but I need you to distract General Ironwood outside the reception room. And don't tell anyone I set you up to do this."

She raised an eyebrow. "And what's in it for me?"

He smiled at her in curiosity. "What is it that you truly desire?"

Merla hesitated a little. "I... I want a raise. I've been working for Jacques for over a year but yet I haven't gotten one. Is that too much to ask?"

The young man answered, "I wouldn't say so. Alright, since you want a raise, I'm willing to make you a deal. You keep Ironwood distracted for as long as possible and I will personally send in a request for a raise on your behalf." He held out his hand to her. "Do we have a deal?"

"Deal." She shook his hand and afterwards gave him a salute. "I will do my best to keep him occupied."

"Excellent. As soon as Ironwood exits the room, I want you to follow him and once he's far away enough, distract him by any means necessary."

The two continued to hide behind the plant as they waited for the general to leave. A few minutes later, Ironwood exited and Merla followed a few steps behind him. Whitley came out of his hiding place, looked over towards Irving and gave him two thumbs up then tapped his thumbs against the curled index fingers twice, almost as if he had joy-cons in his hands. Irving quickly repeated the gesture and dashed off to fulfill his part.

Whitley made his way back to his father's side.

"I'm surprised that they haven't brought out a painting to serve as the centerpiece for the art auction." the businesswoman remarked.

"Where is Irving? He was supposed to have already chosen a painting before the concert even started." Jacques said, clearly irritated.

"Yeah, where is it?" Weiss asked.

As Irving was coming around the corner, holding a painting in his hands, Whitley came up to them and said, "Well, well, what have we here?"

Iris looked up in surprise. "They chose my painting to display?" She stood there, momentarily speechless. "I... I don't know what to say."

Whitley smiled. "Sometimes words can't describe the beauty we have here."

As the servant placed the painting on the wall for everyone to see, the guests looked at it in awe and reverence.

"It looks beautiful. What is the name of the painting?" a woman asked.

"It's titled, _The Gladiator Girl_." Irving answered.

It was an image of Pyrrha Nikos, with her spear and shield in hand. There was a bright green background behind the semi-pro huntress as she stood there in the air, ready for combat. The green background helped to highlight her wavy crimson hair and sash. Her emerald eyes showed confidence, the right arm holding her spear extended and her shield held up over her heart. The image was beautiful, and there were many fine details, some easily noticeable and others that were hard to see, all of which brought the painting to life. Iris put a lot of tender, loving care in making it. It was hard to believe it had been created in under a month. And it was so good that it brought many of the guests to tears, including Weiss.

 _Perfect. All of the pieces have fallen into place. With Ironwood distracted by Merla, he can't reveal to the guests that Pyrrha is actually alive. Father doesn't care enough to mention anything and I have already succeeded into making sure Weiss doesn't find out the truth._

Whitley recalled what was written on the note he gave to Iris;

 _-48 x 60 canvas_

 _-Subject; Pyrrha Nikos_

 _-Add. note; Shield and spear must be in hand_

 _-Any color except red_

Weiss's sobbing continued. Whitley saw this and smiled to himself.

 _Such music to my ears._ He looked at Iris's painting. _With this painting Iris painted for the art auction, Weiss is now subjected to the subject of her torment. I may not know why Weiss is so saddened with Pyrrha's 'demise', but with it, she is alone. If my memory serves me, there were 1,228 people from Atlas that signed the online petition to see her thrown in the slammer before the CCT system went down. Roughly half of them were in this very city. And there's almost certainly many more that may not be known to us. Surely, someone in this room must hate her. Now all that's left is for someone to badmouth Pyrrha. Once they do, Weiss will undoubtedly lose her cool, slap the man or woman who insulted Pyrrha in the face, and she'll lose her title of 'heiress'... And the position of heir to the SDC will finally be mine._

The scene switched to Ironwood stepping out of the restroom, with Merla peering from around the corner.

 _Time to do what Whitley asked of me._ she thought.

She approached him and greeted him. "Hello there, General Ironwood."

He turned around to face her. "Oh hello there." He looked closely at her. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Probably not." the maid answered. "I am just a humble servant in the Schnee family manor."

He raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you here and not serving the guests?"

"I needed a break from the many requests I was being given." She smiled sweetly. "Also, I wanted to see you. I've always admired you Ironwood. Your confidence, your courtesy, your courage. So many C words to describe you." Her look shifted from sweet to curious. "Since you've never written an autobiography, I've always wanted to know- why you decided to join the military and become general? Or in other words, what inspired you?"

"You know, many people have asked me that question over the years, and I always tell them that it's a long story."

She chuckled. "Don't worry about that. I have all the time in the world, so that is not a problem for me."

"Very well then. It started when I was..."

Back in the reception room, many people were depressed with seeing the painting of the falsely-deceased Pyrrha Nikos. Many, including Weiss, were crying softly. One woman was even sobbing hysterically. This had continued for a few minutes.

 _Come on... Somebody badmouth her!_ Whitley thought.

"Really? This is the painting they chose to display?" a woman asked.

A few guests turned to look at a woman with tanned skin, a beauty mark on her face, blonde hair in a bun and light purple-pinkish eyes. She wore a black dress, a pearl bracelet and white earrings. She also had a glass of champagne in her right hand as her husband, a man with tanned skin, brown hair and blue eyes in a business suit, stood stood by her left side.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss quipped.

 _There we go._ Whitley thought to himself.

The trophy wife answered, "The featured painting here shows Pyrrha Nikos, the criminal who destroyed Penny Polendina and started the Fall of Beacon."

Weiss was angered. "How can you say that?! She was a hero!"

 _Yes... Now we're getting somewhere!_ Whitley mused silently.

"A hero? Why would a hero purposely kill one of our own?" the trophy wife asked.

"Uh, Honey..." her husband began.

"What? You said the same thing last night. Pyrrha was uncontrolled, unbound and a destroyer of peace and unity."

"That's not true." Weiss told her. "I knew Pyrrha during her time at Beacon. She would never purposely do this."

"Can you ever really know someone?" the trophy wife retaliated. "This was probably her plan all along. If you ask me, she _deserved_ it. So long and good riddance."

Several nearby guests gasped at her rude and demeaning statement. The heiress glared at the trophy wife and screamed even louder, "How dare you!"

Everyone had eyes on the heiress.

"Weiss..." her father sternly began.

 _Yes! We're getting closer..._ Whitley internally screamed.

Back in the hallway, Ironwood was concluding his backstory to Merla.

"And that's how I became General of Atlas. Now if you excuse me, I should get back to the festivities."

"Ironwood! Wait!"

He stopped, but the maid was running out of ideas on what to say to keep him occupied. She closed her eyes and without warning, grabbed his collar, pulled him in and kissed him. He widened his eyes in shock as her lips were pressed against his.

 _This is for that raise. This is for that raise!_ Merla rapidly thought to herself. _Gods, I can't believe I'm doing this! He's probably going to hate me now..._

Much to her surprise, the general didn't push her away; he returned the embrace, putting his arms around her. She let her hands fall before throwing them around his neck. His hands slid to her waist.

He looked at her with a strange mixture of curiosity and desire. "Young maid, who are you?"

"I'm... I'm Merla..." she meekly answered.

"Merla..."

The two leaned in for another kiss, but before their lips meet again, a scream and a crash was heard from the reception room.

"Oh no..." Merla stated in dread.

Moments earlier in the reception room, Weiss's blood was slowly boiling in anger as she and the trophy wife continued to argue.

"You don't have a clue! None of you do!" Weiss scolded. "You're all just standing around talking about _nothing_! Worrying about your hair, your money, your stupid problems that don't mean _anything_! And in doing so, you're forgetting the heroes that risked their lives and even _died_ trying to defend Beacon!"

"Weiss, that's enough." Jacques scolded.

 _Almost there... Just a little more..._ Whitley thought.

Jacques grabbed her wrist, and she struggled to pull away.

"Let go of me!" Weiss protested.

"You're embarrassing me!"

"I said let go!"

Weiss broke free of her father's grasp with a harsh tug and accidentally knocked him into the potted plant. Whitley looked at his father in concern as he went airborne and crashed into the plant and quickly ran to him. He looked up as a glyph manifested next to Weiss, summoning forth a white Boarbatusk. She looked at it with wide eyes, her jaw dropping. The Boarbatusk charged toward the Trophy Wife, who barely got out of the way in time and nearly everyone ran away from the Grimm summon. The trophy wife screamed and a crash was heard as the Boarbatusk crashed into the wall.

 _This may have worked too well..._ Whitley thought.

Jacques glared at Weiss. "Don't just stand there! Do something!"

"I can't!" Weiss answered fearfully. "I don't have my weapon!"

"Where the hell is Ironwood?!" a businesswoman asked.

Ironwood and Merla's footsteps were seen as they ran back towards the reception room. Meanwhile, Weiss's Boarbatusk continued to wreak havoc. Some of the walls were dented and the Grimm creature was destroying the room. A few were injured, and one was injured critically. Whitley stood by his father's side as Jacques angrily glared at Weiss, who hung her head in shame. Everyone tried to move out of the way, but there was one person who hadn't.

The camera shifted to Iris, standing in the middle of the room. She felt the chill of pure terror vibrate throughout her entire body. Her eyes were purple as panicked screams and crashes were heard. She closed her eyes and the camera zoomed in on her fists, which were now clinched up. Without opening her eyes, she ran forth.

"Iris!" Whitley cried out.

She payed no heed to his call. The painter opened her eyes again, but they were red.

The Trophy Wife had her back to the wall nearby the painting, cowering in fear. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please just leave me alone!"

She closed her eyes in fear and braced herself for the end. The Boarbatusk charged towards her, only for Iris to dash in front of her and create a violet aura shield. The audience gasped in shock and marvel at her feat. But Iris wasn't done yet. She stood her ground and pushed the Grimm back. As the Grimm charged towards her, Iris pulled out Prism, devoid of dust, and slashed the Grimm in side, causing it to be injured. The Boarbatusk spun and charged towards the trophy wife again, and the former Atlas student put another aura shield in front of her, and jumped in front of the creature, punching it right in the face and she swiftly dashed forth and impaled the Grimm's underside with her dagger. The Grimm summon dissipated until nothing was left.

She soon turned her attention back to the trophy wife and angrily walked towards her, her dagger still in hand. The crowd gasped. Iris's eyes turned purple as she realized what the audience was thinking.

Iris dropped her dagger and her eyes turned red again as she turned back to the trophy wife. "You have no right to talk! By saying that, you have insulted the painter who created this lovely artwork and the subject of the painting! You may not know this, but _I'm_ the one who painted the artwork that you so rudely insulted! I didn't have the advantage of having several months to make my masterpiece! Do you know how much time I was given?! Twenty eight days! That's less than a full month! I put countless hours of hard work doing a multi-month project in four weeks! And I barely met the deadline! This painting has never been more important to me, and yet you come in trying to rip it apart! And as for Pyrrha, she _was not_ a villain! She was a hero who was loved by everyone! And I know she wasn't a murderer! I may not have participated in the tournament, but I saw the footage with my own two eyes! She was terrified after her duel with Penny! Terror is not the look of a killer! If she was really as malevolent as you believed her to be, she should have been calm! Or dare I say happy! But she wasn't! She risked her life to defend Beacon Academy, and what have you done in return?! You condemned her and didn't give a fuck about her tragic demise! You treated her death like shit and defiled a grave that she doesn't even have! You have no right to speak, you thrice-damned bitch! So shut your damn mouth and pay your respects!"

There was complete stunned silence after Iris chewed out the trophy wife. Her eyes turned purple as they began to water. She broke down to her knees and started to sob. A door was heard opening, and from Iris's back, two shadows were seen, Merla and Ironwood. The latter approached the painter and asked her, "Are you alright?"

Iris's troubled look on her face was shown. She hesitated as she answered, "I.. I'm fine."

Ironwood knelt down, placing himself so that he could see Iris's face. Her right eye was blue and her left eye was purple. "Really? Because your voice- and your eyes- say otherwise."

The painter's other eye turned blue. "I always was a bad liar. To be honest, I'm not fine."

The general noticed her dagger, lying on the ground next to her. "You're still carrying your dagger?"

Iris picked up her weapon, and looked at herself in it through the glass. "Who ever said that I stopped?"

"So why do you still have it?"

"Well... If be honest, I kept it in case I was ever attacked again, but I never was. Also, it serves as a reminder of what happened the last time I used it before just a few moments ago... After... the _incident_... I never thought I'd have to use it again." She looked at the shocked crowd around her and her eyes turned purple in fear. "Oh no... I'm in so much trouble..."

"You are not in trouble, Ms. Khloris." Jacques spoke. He turned to Weiss, glaring at her as she tensed up in fear. "You however, are in _a lot_ of trouble. You're coming with me, right now."

He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the room. She tried to escape his grasp, but to no avail.

 _Checkmate._ Whitley thought. _I win. And Weiss still doesn't know..._ He laughed internally, a smirk on his face that no one noticed. The heir-to-be walked over to Irving. "Move the painting to the auction room."

Irving complied with his order and walked away to the door in the upper left corner of the room. As Ironwood made a call for an ambulance for the victims, Whitley then turned his attention to Iris, who pocketed her dagger as she stood in shame, her eyes closed. "Iris? What's wrong?"

Her eyes were blue, and she was trying to hold back a new stream of tears. "They think I don't deserve to be here. They all see me as a freak."

"A freak? Why would we think you're a freak?" an upperclass woman asked her.

"Because of... my eyes." Iris said, with one eye blue and the other purple.

"You're not a freak." another upperclass woman told her.

"You're a hero." an upperclass man said.

Iris faintly smiled, her eyes turning yellow.

"That woman insulted Pyrrha and your painting." a businesswoman stated. "You had no reason to save her and yet you did. Why?"

"I... I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. I..." Her eyes turned blue as everyone stared at her concerned. "I couldn't let another innocent person die."

"Are you a huntress by chance?" she asked.

Iris nodded. "No."

"An Atlas academy student?"

She nodded in the negative again. "No."

"Well why not?" Henry Marigold asked. "You should be. Atlas could use someone like you."

"But... How can I... how can I go back?"

"Go back? What do you mean?"

"Wait a second. I know you." the upperclass man stated. "You're Iris Khloris, the semi-pro huntress who ran away after the Painted Wall incident."

She hung her head in shame. "Yes. It was my fault. I unintentionally lead the Grimm to Mantle due to an argument with my teammate about a painting I was creating. I couldn't face the devastation and deaths I caused, so I ran from the scene like the cold-blooded coward I am." She turned away from the crowd.

Whitley took one of the glasses of fruit punch from a nearby waiter and approached her. "Iris. You are not a coward. You're a brave, selfless, ambitious artist and warrior, who stepped in when no one else could. You learned from your mistakes, and look," He gestured to the crowd and she looked at them with grey eyes. "they see you as the hero you are." He offered her the glass. "And heroes deserve to be rewarded."

She took the glass, her eyes turning yellow as she faintly smiled. "Thank you."

The rainbow eyed girl began to sip on the punch. Upon finishing her first sip, her smile became brighter. In the background, ambulance workers got the injured victims out of the reception room as Iris finished her glass.

"Are you feeling better?" Whitley asked.

"Yeah... I am." she answered.

"Good to hear. Now come, the auction should be starting soon."

He held out his arm to her, and she accepted. The crowd cleared a path so they could get to the door in the upper left corner of the room, where artwork was to be auctioned for charity. As the two made their way forward, Iris smiled contentedly and so did Whitley. As soon as no one was looking, Whitley's smile shifted to a smirk. For the painter and heir-to-be, they had come to the end of the dream.


	74. Between the Sinners and the Saints

Author's Notes:

-Happy April Fools Day! I'm back with another chapter! (For real!) Due to the coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19), all of my classes are now online. Whether or not this will affect the frequency of my fanfiction chapter publishings remains to be seen. I wish I could say this wasn't true, but alas, I can not. Stay safe everyone!

-And speaking of real, there ain't much trickery going on here. Nope- a lot of characters are going to face cold, harsh reality. Last we left off, Weiss just got dragged out of the reception by her father. How badly will things go for Jacques? Let's find out.

* * *

Weiss was in a lot of trouble and she knew it. As she sat on her bed with her father in the room, she felt a pool of anxiety building up in her stomach. The former Beacon student didn't believe she had ever seen her father this angry.

"Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable." Jacques suddenly stopped before turning and pointing at her. "Do you have any idea what your stunt cost us?"

Weiss stammered. "I—"

He swiftly cut her off. "I'm not just talking about Lien here! I'm talking about our reputation! Our..."

Jacques sighed angrily and held his head, unable to come up with the words to scold her. Weiss waited for a moment before speaking. "Father... I want to..." she began.

"Young lady, I don't give a damn about what you want! This isn't about _you_. This is about the Schnee family name and your apparent insistence on dragging it through the mud!"

Weiss stood up from the bed to face her father. "I have done _nothing_ but fight to uphold the honor of _my_ family name, a name that _you_ married into!"

Jacques slapped Weiss hard on her left cheek, sending her head to the side as she gasped in reaction. She put her hand on her cheek and turned to face her father.

"This behavior of yours is incredibly disappointing. You fail to comprehend the lengths I've gone to in order to keep this family where it is. If you think running off like your sister is going to make the Schnee name stronger then you are wrong. Siding with her will only divide us."

"I'm not _siding_ with anyone. I'm doing what I feel is right, and that does _not_ include wasting my time up here with these clueless people in Atlas." Jacques walked away and rolled his eyes. "The Schnee family legacy isn't yours to leave. It's _mine_ , and I'll do it as a Huntress, which is why I'm going to Atlas Academy."

Jacques stops and slowly turns to face her again. As he speaks, he moves to stand in front of his daughter, peering down upon her. "You're not going there. You're not to leave the manor grounds unless I specifically allow it. You _are_ going to remain here, out of sight and out of trouble, until you and I come to an agreement on your future."

"What?!"

"Your presupposition that you can simply have whatever it is you want is a clear sign of our failure as parents. But from now on, I'll be giving you the full attention you require, starting by keeping you where I can see you and giving your earnings to your brother Whitley."

Weiss took a step back, stunned as she was stripped of her title. "Excuse me?"

"It appears that the trauma you endured at the fall of Beacon was too much for you. Which is why Whitley will take your place as heir to the company."

Weiss stared at Jacques, breathing heavily as she took in the news. "You can't just keep me from leaving!"

He turned to look at her again. "I can, and the staff here will make sure of it."

She glared at him. "So now I'm just your prisoner?!

"You are my daughter." he answered. "You're a child, and children are grounded when they misbehave."

Weiss glared at her father even harsher. "You can't do this!"

He slapped her again. "I can. You need to calm down and compose yourself, or you'll never get anywhere in life. It's time to wake up and face reality."

He closed the door on her and turned away, not noticing Whitley who had been eavesdropping on the conservation.

 _Looks like victory is finally mine._ Whitley thought. _And who would have guessed that Iris would have her dreams fulfilled as well?  
_

A flashback occurred to where he and Iris were in the auction room. The two stood in the lower right corner of the room, watching as paintings were being sold.

"And next up in the series, we have _The Gladiator Girl_ created by Iris Khloris." the auctioneer announced. Many people cheered and Iris smiled. Whitley genuinely smiled thereafter. "Let the bidding start at 15,000 Lien." He declared. "Do I hear 20,000 Lien?"

"Thirty thousand Lien!" a woman called.

"Thirty thousand Lien! Do I hear 35,000 Lien? Going once..."

"Forty thousand Lien!" a businessman called.

"Forty thousand Lien! Can we get 50,000 Lien? Going..."

"Fifty thousand Lien!" a woman in the back exclaimed.

Iris looked on in amazement as the price climbed up.

"Seventy-five thousand!"

"Eighty-five thousand!

"One hundred thousand Lien!"

Her mouth hung open in amazement.

"Do I hear 105,000 Lien? Going once..." the auctioner declared.

"125,000 Lien!"

"Going..."

"150,000 Lien!"

"Two hundred thousand Lien!"

"Do I hear 205,000 Lien? Going once, going twice..."

"250,000 Lien!" the same lady in the back exclaimed.

"Do I hear any other bids? Going once, going twice... Sold! To the lady in the back for 250,000 Lien!"

Iris felt tears escape her yellow eyes- tears of joy. Whitley smiled for her.

"Well, for a first time artist, you've done very well. Congratulations."

She threw her arms around him. "Thank you, Whitley. You've helped me out of the abyss."

He returned the gesture. "You're welcome, Iris. What else are friends for?"

As he returned to the present, he entered his bedroom and smirked upon closing the door.

 _Looks like today was a very good day._ he thought to himself.

* * *

A few hours after Jacques and Weiss's argument, Estelle Blanche had just arrived at the Schnee family manor after spending the day with her eldest granddaughter. As she roamed the halls, she believed it would be best to inform her employer that she had returned and was ready to resume her duties tomorrow. She found the door to Jacques's chamber and was about to knock on the door when she heard a moan.

"I can't believe that Weiss lost her temper and nearly killed the patrons with her summons."

"Oh come now," a feminine voice softly answered. Estelle carefully pressed her ear to the door to eavesdrop on the conservation as the voice continued clearly, "I thought we came here to forget all that."

 _Wait a minute... Is that...?_ She thought to herself.

"True." There was a moment of silence. "You know Bianca, you performed quite well out there."

She raised her eyebrows in fear and alarm. _Bianca Delaney?_

Her laughter was heard as the maid began to connect the dots. "Oh, you haven't seen anything yet. The _real_ performance is about to begin."

Estelle bit her tongue and covered her mouth to prevent a gasp from escaping her mouth. She bit her tongue harder as she heard them making out.

"You certainly aren't the saint."

Bianca chuckled innocently. "You're one to talk Jacques. Then again, what Willow doesn't know won't hurt her."

"There's no chance of her finding out."

The maid felt a wave of nausea coming. She forced herself to keep it down as she heard the passionate make-out continued behind closed doors.

Estelle could not be certain, but she imagined Bianca was smirking as she said, "So, who's the sinner now?"

A slow moan was heard from Bianca before progressing to quicker, louder moans. Estelle swiftly turned on her heel and left, unable to stand another second of this heinous act, even if she couldn't see it.

* * *

The scene started with blackness before Tyrian felt a jab and was woken up from his slumber. He groaned softly as he opened his eyes. Upon opening them, he saw a Seer floating right before him in his tent. The Seer left the tent, and Tyrian begrudgingly got up. The Grimm took one of its tentacles and pointed to Tyrian's right, far from the camp. The Seer moved in the direction it had pointed in. The scorpion followed the Seer, musing to himself silently as he snuck away from the campsite.

 _Hmm... It seems Lady Salem is summoning me. But why?_

Once they were about five hundred feet from the camp, the red smoke in the Seer began to stir.

"Hello? My lady?" Tyrian whispered.

The red smoke cleared to show Salem. "Good evening, Tyrian."

"I think it's actually early morning, but it's a minor detail in the grand scheme of things." He yawned. "I assume there's a reason you've risen me from slumber."

"There is. Normally I would not do this, but with the band of warriors you're traveling with, this is the only time I can speak to you without interference. Speaking of which, what are you doing with these hooligans anyway?"

"You see, my lady, this group is a portion of experienced combatants and civilian soldiers called the Trojan Alliance. Their goal is find Pyrrha Nikos and bring her justice. However, this group was specifically hired by Garnet Scarlatti, the mayor of Aquarian, to kill the spartan warrior. Since Ruby Rose is traveling with Pyrrha and the rest of team JNPR, I figured I would join the alliance, pretending to want to bring Pyrrha to justice, but when the time is right, I'll fight Ruby mano a mano, subdue her, and take her to you. The Trojan Alliance will kill Pyrrha, her teammates will defeated, and we'll have Ruby. It's a win-win, and no one will be the wiser."

"I see your plan, and I will admit, it does sound clever in theory, but there's one thing I think you failed to take into consideration; What if they kill all of Pyrrha's friends simply for being associated with her? Not only does that mean that all of team JNPR would be dead, but Ruby would be as well."

Tyrian widened his eyebrows in realization before musing to himself. "You have a point there, my lady. Hmm... How to get around this..."

"How many fighters are in Scarlatti's Alliance?"

"Let me do the math here..." The scorpion man mused to himself before answering, "Four huntsmen, two police officers, three soldiers, twenty civilians who are learning the basics. Not counting myself, there are twenty nine members in this squad."

"How skilled are the officers and soldiers?"

"They're decent, but none of them are anywhere near as good as team SOLR."

She raised an eyebrow. "Team SOLR?" Her calm look turned to a glare. "Weren't you supposed to take them out during your three day stop at Vita several months ago?"

"I was, but, much to my dismay, I never found them. Now I see why; they moved to the outskirts of Vale. Unfortunately, I can't poison them- they're my free ticket to Ruby. As for the stop in Vita, I did get most of the other targets you requested though. Jay Hawkins, Cyan Kratz, Caroline Teale. The only one I couldn't find was Slate De Sena. But back to the issue at hand. Hmm... Perhaps what I can do is isolate Ruby from the rest of the fight. The civilians, officers and soldiers will slowly chip away at their defenses. They're not strong enough to kill former Beacon students. Even if Ruby encounters the mob, they won't be able to slay her. Alternatively, if she does encounter them, I'll pounce on her when she least expects it. Once that's done, I'll flee the scene before anyone sees me and bring her back to you. As for team SOLR, they won't even matter. They will be too busy fighting Pyrrha and her other three teammates."

"Now that is a plan I can get behind. It seems you know what you're doing. Just focus on finding and capturing Ruby. If you have to, defy SOLR's orders to do so."

"That I can do."

"Excellent. I know you're tired and probably wish to get back to bed, so I will bother you no more. Rest up. You'll need it to have any chance of capturing Ruby. Good night to you."

He gave her a bow. "Until we meet again, my lady."

Her image faded in smoke, ending the communication. The Seer floated away, leaving Tyrian alone.

* * *

The next day, after the sun had risen, team CUBB was walking in the forest, far from Mistral's capital city. In the back, Maza sadly fidgeted with her hijab. Ayress stood proudly with her teammates. The Griffin sisters had neutral looks as Carmina carried the briefcase of cash in her right hand.

"So now the Griffin sisters have sold their apartments and taken their savings, where do we go and settle? Argus or Wind Path?" Ayress asked her teammates.

"Perhaps we should go to Argus." Blanka suggested. "They need help."

"You have a good point there little sis." Carmina responded. "With the destruction of Argus Harbor Max Security Prison, it seems like they're going to need all the help they can get. Isn't that right, Maza?" Maza didn't answer and continued to fidget with the green cloth. "Maza?"

Everyone stopped and looked at the huntress. "Maza? What's wrong?" Blanka asked.

She straightened her hijab. "Nothing."

"You're not a good liar. You always fidget with your hijab when you're distressed." Ayress stated. "Come on, Maza, spill it."

"I still feel like this was a bad idea. We're carrying blood money, and I fear that Maura's curse will come to pass."

"Don't worry, Maza. Somehow I doubt a vengeful homicidal maniac will find us. And even if he does find us, with our combined efforts, we'll clobber him to the ground!" Carmina told her.

"We'll be fine." Blanka told her.

"Come on, we better get to Wind Path to sell Ayress's apartment." Carmina ordered.

The huntresses went forth and felt cool winter breeze brush past them. Maza tried to resist fidgeting with her hijab again, but she stopped in her tracks.

"Wait a second." Maza stated. "Someone's here."

"She's right." Carmina stated, using her aura to sense the person nearby. She concentrated and cried out seconds later, "Coming in at 10 o'clock!"

Blanka quickly dashed out of the way as Hazel attempted to ram her into a tree. The vengeful madman appeared in a state of rage before the huntresses.

"Who the hell is he?!" Blanka asked.

"I don't know, but we need to get him!" Carmina responded.

Everyone got out their weapons as Hazel ran towards the huntresses. Ayress charged forth, swinging her mace at him, only for him to directly intercept it with his hand effortless. He quickly grabbed it and tossed it aside like it was a piece of trash.

"Huh?!" Ayress exclaimed.

He punched her into a tree, and Blanka fired at him with her gauntlets, only to take each hit like it was nothing. The lumberjack quickly grabbed her wrist and threw her into Ayress.

Carmina used her staff to throw waves of rock dust at him. At that same, Maza took her axe, now loaded with electric dust, and fired it at Hazel.

"He didn't even flinch?!" Maza asked in terror.

She was punched in the stomach and sent flying, her legs landing directly on Ayress's mace. She screamed in pain and her comrades got up from the ground in alarm.

"Who... what are you?!" Carmina asked.

"That is none of your concern." Hazel answered.

Ayress retrieved her weapon as Carmina switched to firing fire dust at the same time Blanka fired more shots at him. Hazel ran forth and grabbed Blanka by the neck and threw her into the nearest tree. Maza got up as Blanka's white aura began to flicker. Ayress charged towards Hazel and threw fire dust at him, only for him to dash out of the way, setting a tree on fire instead. Maza and Carmina charged towards him, only to be knocked aside like dominoes.

He threw Blanka into a tree, only for her to spin around and land on the tree. Blanka jumped from tree, making her way towards him. He kicked Ayress in the legs, causing her fall to her knees and kicked her down. Shortly thereafter, Hazel saw Blanka coming at him, charging up her gauntlets with red energy. He grabbed the younger twin's arm, stopping her attack and threw her back-first into a tree, breaking her spine and killing her instantly.

"Blanka!" Carmina cried out. She glared at him with tears and daggers in her eyes. "You're going to pay for that!"

The leader of the team pressed a button and all four kinds of dusts were shown funneling into the tube, ready to be unleashed. Tears fell as she fired the four types of dust at the madman. Unfortunately, he dodged every wave and redirected himself so that when he dodged, she had fired at her teammate Ayress. The dark dressed girl screamed out in pain and Carmina winced at her mistake.

Maza threw her axe at his head, and he barely dodged it. As she went to retrieve it, Carmina faltered after her mistake and didn't see Hazel was about to punch her. As a result, she was punched right in the face, feeling a lot of pain in her jaw and even a tooth come loose. She quickly refocused herself and fired at him again, only for Ayress to be grabbed and held at the neck, slowly choking her.

"Let her go!" Maza demanded. She tried to punch him in the arm, but he didn't feel anything. Maza growled, frustrated to no end. "How is he not feeling any pain?!"

"Is it possible that he's a robot?!" Ayress asked, gasping for breath.

Carmina whacked Hazel on the head with her staff as Maza answered, "Not possible! I can feel his skin!"

Using his free hand, he grabbed the staff and removed it from her hands. He crushed it under his foot and tightened his grip around Ayress's neck.

"Ayress!" Carmina called out.

She desperately ran to him to try and save her friend, only for Ayress to exhale her last breath and be tossed aside. Hazel dodged an incoming electric dust wave from Maza's axe and attempted to slay him by striking the axe crossing his chest, but the blade was stopped by his hand. He threw it towards Carmina, who was impaled in the stomach with the axe, her pink aura flickering and disappearing. After dodging Maza's punches and tossing her to the ground, he soon punched team CUBB's leader in the skull, breaking it and killing her.

"Carmina!" Maza cried out.

With her friends dead, Maza felt a wave of dread wash over her. She looked at the madman in the eye as he picked up her axe. Tears threatened to fall as she saw Maura's words were coming true. There was no fighting it; her team had met their doom.

"I surrender!" Maza exclaimed, holding her hands in surrender. Hazel looked at her questionably as she knelt down on her knees. "Please just make it quick." She started to sob, not noticing his hesitance as her head bowed to him. She dared not look at her executioner in the eye. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

She sobbed some more, and Hazel looked at her sadly. "So do I."

He took Maza's axe and split her skull, killing her instantly. He looked at her lifeless body and the heavily bloodied axe.

 _How did it get to this?_

The lumberjack dropped the weapon and looked at the dead huntresses laying before him. Turning away from Maza, he made his way over to Carmina's corpse. He knelt down and took the case of cash that Carmina had been carrying.

 _Money stained with the 'blood' of five women. Maura, Maza, Blanka, Ayress and Carmina._ He sighed. _Why am I even taking this case of cash?_ _I don't even know what use I would get out of this. All the money in the world can't bring her back..._

While his back was turned, a Seer floated towards him. The smoke dissipated to show Salem.

"Hazel Rainart." She got his attention.

He turned around to face her. "Oh, Your Excellency."

"You look troubled. Are you having problems with killing huntsmen and huntresses?"

"No, Your Grace. No problem at all." he answered. "I was just thinking about how this briefcase is quote-en-quote heavily stained 'blood money'."

She looked closer at the briefcase. "Isn't that the reward team CUBB received for turning in Maura Celandine to the authorities?"

"It is. I don't know why I'm taking it or what use we would get out of it, but maybe it would help your cause."

"Hmm... I'm sure it'll have a great use to us. Hand over the case to the Seer and the Seer will hand it to me." Salem told him. He followed her instructions without delay as one of the tentacles held on to the case. "You have done very well, Hazel. Keep this up, and Haven's defense will crumble in no time."

"Certainly, Your Excellency."

"In related news, how's the hunt for Adam going?"

"No leads yet, but I'm still looking."

"Look no further. I have a received word from a Seer that Adam and a few of his faunus friends are hiding on the outskirts of Kunchinashi." she informed him. "Find him and figure out why he left Mountain Glen."

"As you wish."

"And while you're at it, kill more of the huntsmen and huntresses there."

Hazel gave a respectful bow to his mistress. "That can be arranged."

Salem smiled before the smoke entered the sphere, ending the conservation. The Seer floated off, taking the case of cash with it. Hazel sighed and took out a square-shaped locket. The locket's gold paint had slowly faded away over the years, despite not being worn.

 _The last thing I have left of her... Nearly thirty years since she perished. But now's not the time to reminiscence. To Kunchinashi I must go. Hopefully Adam is still there by the time I arrive._

He put the locket away and walked away from the scene of the crime.


	75. State of My Head

Sienna Khan was shown lying on the ground, her arms behind her head and her fist closed as if she was surrendering or about to fight. Her closed eyes squinted and then slowly opened.

"Oh... My head..." She sat up. "Where am I?"

She found herself in a forest on the outskirts of Mistral city. She stood up and took in her surroundings; several coniferous trees for miles on both sides of her, yet she stood in between a gap big enough to let her see the rising sun.

Although she was alone, she decided to keep her thoughts to herself. _What happened? How did I get here? How was I not eaten by Grimm? And do I still have everything?_

Sienna looked at her arm, finding her weapon still there before she checked her inventory, searching her pockets and black drawstring bag. From her pockets she pulled out a tube of chap-stick, wallet (which had all its contents in it), a pair of white earbuds, her scroll and a piece of paper with several names on it. From her bag she found seven rations, a half-empty water bottle, a square that could expand into a tent, a packet of matches and her speech. She put everything back and threw her bag on her back before she realized...

 _Wait a minute. Where's my m_ _ask and cloak?_ The High Leader looked around her, and touched her face to feel for a mask that wasn't there. Her mask and cloak were completely gone. _Where are they? I wouldn't have just left them..._ _Wait... Were they stolen? Could I have lost them in the battle? What happened after I fell down that cliff?_

A vision with a memory came to her. As Sienna fell down the cliff, she felt a black stream of magic rush over her and subdue her. She fell unconscious as she continued to fall down and she saw a figure in black robes with deathly pale skin and white hair catching her. The vision ended abruptly as she saw a strange symbol appear in her mind. She gasped and felt a cold chill.

Like the vision, the chill came and went quickly. Sienna looked around her and then looked at her hands. _What happened to me?_ There was a moment of silence before her blood turned to ice in fear. _And where's Maura?!_

She made a run through the forest, and as she ran, her thoughts ran wild.

 _Don't tell me Maura's dead. I need answers. How long have I been there? What happened to me?_ _And where's team CUBB?_ She internally sighed. _I just hope I'm not too late._

The scene transitioned to the White Fang leader nearby the city of Mistral. The street was deserted, but before she stepped into view, she told herself, _Wait. This is open territory. Without my cloak and mask, I'm vulnerable and could be caught and thrown in the big house. I need some sort of disguise._

The scene cut to Sienna hiding in an upside down trash can. Small bits of garage rested on top of her head as she tried very hard to not breathe with her nose. With only a few inches of the lower part of her legs visible to anyone nearby, she turned her neck down to the feet to try and see the path in front of her, which was not easy.

 _If anyone in the White Fang hears about this, they'll never let me live it down._ she thought. _This is so humiliating..._

Sienna failed to see the path in front of her, so she stumbled right into a wall, causing her to fall over and internally scream, her head rattling with the metal around her. She crawled out of the trash can, trying to reorient herself.

"Ya know, if you're trying to sneak around the city, that might be the most pathetic attempt I've ever seen."

She found herself in the presence of a heavy-weight middle-aged woman with light skin and short blonde hair in a bob. She had a beauty mark under her right eye, lipstick on her upper lip and purple nail polish on her fingernails. The top of her dress was white and backless, with long sleeves. The beads and straps were purple. Below was a purple corset and a long pleated skirt with yellow on its top layer, purple in the middle one, and white in the lower layer. Her shoes were brown and decorated with a green ribbon. The sleeves were detached, showing her shoulders, the left of which had a tattoo of a spider in its web.

Sienna scoffed as she got up and dusted the trash off her. "Well I don't need you to tell me that."

The woman raised an angry eyebrow at her. "Just who do you think you are?"

"I'm Adrienne Noir." the tiger-eared faunus lied.

The spider-tattooed woman smirked. "Nice try, Tigress. I know who you are, Miss Khan. You remember what happened five years ago?"

Sienna sighed and glared at her. "What do you want Miss Malachite?"

"I'd like you to stop being so rude. If I wanted to turn you in, I could. You could be the slammer right now, but you don't want that, do you?"

She put her hand to her left arm sadly. "No, I don't. I do want answers though."

Miss Malachite smirked. She had Sienna right where she wanted her. "Well, if you come with me, and lose the attitude, I'll help you get the answers you seek. Perhaps even for free."

"Alright, Miss. Lead the way."

"That's better. Now come."

Sienna had no choice but to follow the woman. The scene transitioned to the two of them arriving at a bar. Lil' Miss Malachite sat in the back at her table and Sienna stood a respectful distance from her.

"Looks like you can still hide in plain sight." she tried to compliment.

"They haven't caught me yet, and they never will. So, what questions do you have for me?"

"I'd like to know- where is Maura Celandine, and what became of her?" Miss Malachite chuckled, much to Sienna's frustration. "What? What's so funny?!"

She stopped and composed herself. "You don't know? It's practically common knowledge at this point."

"Know what?! Miss Malachite, you're scaring me."

She stopped laughing. "You really are clueless. Maura was caught by team CUBB, trialed and executed."

Sienna gasped. "No... This, this can't be..."

Malachite turned to one of her minions. "Get the paper." The henchwoman walked off and quickly retrieved a newspaper. "Read it and weep."

The High Leader took the newspaper from _Nina News_ and began to read it.

 ** _BREAKING NEWS- Maura Celandine Has Been Executed, and Her Last Words Will Surprise You_**

 _February 5th, 80 AGW_

 _Written by Violet Scarlatina_

Under the headline where two pictures side by side. On the right was Maura's prison head shot. Her prison number was shown to be 011235259. On the left was the entrance to the Catacombs prison with the stone wall of the execution grounds seen in the background.

 _Maura Celandine, the Mistralian White Fang leader and one of the most dangerous women in Mistral, has finally reached her end. After being caught by team CUBB (Cubeb), a group of huntresses that graduated from Haven Academy, Maura was put on trial. The Case of Mistral vs Maura was one of the longest single-day trials in Mistral's history, lasting a total of ten hours and forty five minutes (not counting meal or rest breaks). After several long hours, the jury unanimously agreed that Maura was guilty of all charges._ _The defendant was accused of authorizing her subordinate Athena Bruna to attack Sanctum Academy, which resulted in the partial destruction of the combat school and Headmaster Sterling Aurelio falling into a coma. She was also accused of aiding Athena in freeing prisoners from and destroying Argus Harbor Max Security prison._ _Judge Isabelle Bluebell decided the punishment would be execution, and as terrorist, she was bumped up to the very front of death row._

 _Strangely enough, one of the members of team CUBB, Maza Bashir, chose to defend her upon being called by the defense. Maza had taken two photos of her, one from the Argus Harbor Prison break-in and another one was Maura's prison head shot. She suggested that the Maura at the Argus Harbor Prison was not actually 'Maura', but instead was an imposter designed to frame Maura for Athena's actions. She also suggested that Athena was no longer Maura's lieutenant after attacking Sanctum. These were only some of the many things she said in defense of Maura. Ultimately, the judge and jury dismissed all of her arguments._ _But even if Maza was right, this leaves the following questions; who impersonated Maura? And what connection does she have to Athena? It seems that Maza's teammates were annoyed, if not angry with Maza for defending the charged criminal. Team CUBB could not be reached for comment._

 _(continued on page 2A)_

 _Despite the fact that Bluebell condemned her to death, it was Warden Cayenne who chose the method that she was killed by; burning her at the stake._

Sienna softly gasped, but repressed a sob as she continued reading.

 _But what's strange is that despite protesting her innocence throughout most of the time she was imprisoned, after the trial, she stopped trying to claim she was innocent. According to one of the guards, she refused her last meal and asked them to give it to a homeless person. That same guard was also present when bringing her to the execution grounds._

 _"She stopped trying." the guard said._ _"She didn't even ask for anything for her last meal. She wanted to give it to someone in need. It seems that Maura was a very compassionate and generous person. For a faunus who was part of a terrorist group, she didn't act malevolent or cruel at all. Not to the guards, to her fellow prisoners. No one."_

 _When the time came to take her out of her cell, she didn't protest at all. Many predicted that she would have to be dragged out and forced to go to the execution grounds for her punishment, but this was not the case._

 _"She was very well behaved." the guard noted. "She_ _stopped only once, to look at the sun one last time. We had to tell her to keep moving."_

 _In the same way her trial was rushed, so was her execution. Within a few minutes, Maura Celandine was tied to a pole and ready to be set ablaze. But before her execution she spoke those words;_ _"Normally I would use this time to protest my innocence, but it seems that no matter what I say or do, you find me guilty. So I leave you with this warning; Do not be so quick to judge others or deem someone as a criminal, for they may not be guilty at all. Things are not always what they seem to be. And let these words be known throughout the kingdom and all of Remnant- Pyrrha Nikos is alive, and she is innocent."_

 _After these final words, she was promptly set ablaze and died of suffocation. It is unknown what became of her remains. Warden Cayenne could not be reached for comment._

Sienna stopped reading after seeing those words. "No..." Try as she might, she couldn't stop herself from sobbing. "Maura..."

The High Leader dried her eyes and read the last of the article, with more tears falling despite her best efforts.

 _Many are wondering what the future of Mistral's White Fang looks like. With Maura's execution, many believe that the Mistralian White Fang will be left leaderless and eventually may be completely disbanded. However, this may not be the case. Since she was working closely with Athena Bruna, who lead her army to Sanctum Academy, it is most likely that Maura entrusted her with the badge and burden of leadership in case something were to happen to her. But this also rises the question; Why didn't Athena bust Maura out of jail when she had already destroyed the Argus Harbor Prison with Maura's help? No one knows, but what is known is that Athena is armed and highly dangerous. For those that seek to bring her to justice, t_ _he bounty for Athena stands at 75,000 Lien._

 _Another question that's being asked is why Maura, a human hating faunus, would defend a human warrior. Some claim it's because maybe Maura wasn't as human-hating as the world perceived her to be. A small few believe that Maura defended Pyrrha because some believe that they're in similar situations. Pyrrha dueled against Penny during the singles round in the Vytal Festival Tournament, and accidentally destroyed her in the process. Since Penny was an android with an aura, or a robot with a soul, many saw her as a living being and equated her demise to intentional murder. Oftentimes because of this reason, Pyrrha has also been blamed for starting the Fall of Beacon. Despite Mistral being her home, some of its people have turned on her. One small group of Pyrrha haters presumed she was dead after falling off a cliff, thus starting and/or perpetuating a rumor that she was dead. With Maura's final words, people now have to think about her words that were previously spoken, from the time of the aftermath of Sanctum up to her death. So why did she say those words? Was she truly trying to defend Pyrrha in her final moments? Or is it possible that something worse lurks beyond the horizon?_

Sienna held the paper in her hand and felt herself turn numb.

"Truth hurts, doesn't it?" Miss Malachite asked.

She looked at the title again. Then she noticed the date. "This can't be real."

The gang leader smirked. "Oh? And why not?"

"Because if this is true, then... I've been unconscious for two weeks!"

"Well, welcome back to reality. It's a real bitch, isn't it?"

Sienna stood there, rapid thoughts swarming her mind. _Two weeks?! Oh gods... What happened to me during this time? Was I completely unconscious? Was I drugged and cursed not to remember anything? Was I... raped? No, don't think such things. Alright, what are the symptoms of pregnancy?_

"You seem confused, darling." Lil' Miss said.

"Well it's not everyday that the world is turned upside down." Sienna quipped. She tried to hold back a sob, but failed miserably and turned away from her. "You wouldn't understand."

"I will admit that I don't." Lil' Miss frowned. "Is that all the questions you have for me?"

"I think so..." Sienna suddenly had a vision of the with the strange symbol she saw earlier and turned back to Miss Malachite. "On second thought, I have one more question for you. Unfortunately, I fear you may not be able to answer it."

Miss Malachite raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Oh? And what that be?"

"I've been seeing a strange symbol appear in my dream ever since I woke up. Somehow I doubt you'll recognize it."

"Draw it out for me."

The henchwoman handed the high leader of the White Fang a marker and a napkin. Sienna drew the symbol perfectly and showed it to Miss Malachite.

"Hmm... Can't say that I know what it means, but there might be somebody here who does." She extended her hand and Sienna gave her some Lien. "There's a vast library in the very top level of the city. They have a restricted section that might have what you're looking for. You'll have to do some sneaking, as well as breaking and entering, but that shouldn't be a problem for you."

"It shouldn't be." Sienna gave a dry smile as she put the folded napkin and pocketed it. "Thanks for the information, Mildred."

Lil Miss' gave Sienna a very harsh glare. "What did I tell you about using that name?"

"I know you hate it, but frankly, I don't care."

Mildred sighed. "Good luck out there, Missy. You'll need it."

Sienna exited the bar and wondered how to get around without being noticed.

 _Well, this is far from good. Unconscious for two weeks, no idea what happened during that time. My only clue is this symbol..._ She looked at the symbol she drew on the napkin before sighing. _There's also the matter of getting to the library without being seen or caught. How in the world am I going to do that? I am a_ wanted _woman._

She put the napkin away and slipped into an alleyway as she saw someone coming. She snuck a glance at the incoming person, seeing a man with a mustache holding a list in his hand, crossing something out as he walked through the streets. She turned away quickly, looking back at the wall in front of her.

 _It seems this is the state of my head._ she thought to herself as she stepped into the darkness.

* * *

Meanwhile, Adam and most of his entourage stood or sat around in Maura's cottage. Adam paced restlessly, going from the living room to the empty bedroom and back again. Ilia stood and watched him pace from behind the kitchen counter. Douglas and Hector sat on a couch, the former reading a book and the latter playing a game on his scroll.

The door opened, and Adam stopped his pacing. Daphne came in, crying and holding a rolled up scroll in her hands. "Terror! Terror! Terror!" she quickly cried. "This is beyond words and beyond belief!"

"What's the matter?" Ilia asked.

"Terrible news has befallen us!"

"What are you talking about?!" Adam demanded.

She sobbed, her voice breaking. "Maura has been executed." Another sob. "She was captured over two weeks ago, then trialed, wrongly deemed guilty and burned at the stake the next day."

Adam was outraged. "What?!"

Douglas looked up from his book. "But... how?!"

Ilia felt shocked and depressed by this revelation. "No... This can't be..."

Hector remained in sad silence as Daphne wiped away her tears. "I wish it wasn't true, but alas, it is. I heard it from one of Athena's messengers and she gave me this notice." She sobbed again. "The journalists are writing the story as we speak."

"Pretty soon this news will be all over Mistral. And perhaps possibly even the whole world." Hector commented.

"Great!" Adam sarcastically exclaimed. "That means we've been sitting around here for nothing!"

"Master Taurus, what do we do now?" Ilia inquired.

He sighed heavily. "With most of my entourage captured by the authorities, save for Lieutenant Douglas, our pilot, and you two, I'm running out of assistance to find the Mistralian White Fang leader and get my plan off the ground. And now with Maura Celandine gone, Athena Bruna has taken her place. This is probably going to make things harder for us."

"Not to mention we don't have a clue where the winged faunus has gone." Hector added.

Daphne asked in between sobs, "Do you think she might have gone back to Maura's old lair?"

"Not very likely. She's too smart for that." Adam stated. "More likely she's establishing a new headquarters. But where?"

"She wouldn't be in Mistral... or in Argus. But that still doesn't leave us much to go on." Ilia stated.

Adam sighed. "We need to find where Athena has gone and speak with her at once. Daphne, do you have any leads as to where Athena might be heading?"

She nodded sadly. "I'm afraid not, sir."

"Then go out and see if you can't find any leads. If we can't find any, we'll have to search this entire kingdom until we find her."

Daphne swiftly left. As the door closed, Adam sighed again and walked away from his cohorts, much to Ilia's dismay.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Mensonge, the heroic quintet found themselves walking away from the village as the sun set over Sanus. A few trees were seen behind them with a yellow and orange sky. No traveling bags were seen and Nora was shown with a map in her hands.

"Okay... The cave of Death Stalkers shouldn't be too far from here..." she told herself and her teammates.

Jaune sighed. "Remind me, why did we agree to do this again?"

Nora answered, "Because Jaune, we need the money to get on the passenger ship after learning from the hotel manager that ticket prices for all modes of sea transportation rose. With our current funds, we'd only have enough for two of us to make it on the ship. And knowing how dangerous Cinder really is, you guys are going to need all the help you can get."

"You know, we could just sneak on the ship. I mean, Pyrrha Nikos snuck on an airship carrying dust crates to get directly to Olympia." 'Rouge' told them.

"Yeah, but that's illegal and risky with a party of our size. And the villagers still need help, even if they are mostly criminals." Ruby reminded them. "Besides, if we get rid of the biggest Grimm threat, maybe they'll actually be able to restore order to the village."

"That might be a bit of a stretch, but we have to do what we can." Ren responded.

"Alright guys. Looks like we're here." Nora stated, putting the map away. "The Death Stalkers Cave."

She gestured to cave in front of them.

"Alright, none of us have night vision." The team leader sighed. "Makes me wish Blake was here..."

"You're not supposed to know that Jaune." Ruby reminded him. "The only reason you guys know..."

"I know, I know I'm not supposed to know and your tongue slipped."

"Guys, focus." 'Rouge' demanded. "Since none of us can see in the dark, we'll have to draw them out of the cave. One of us will have to go into the cave and lure them out. Any volunteers?"

"Maybe should draw straws?" Ruby suggested.

"I don't think we have straws." Ren told them.

"Nose goes?" Jaune proposed.

The heroes quickly put their fingers to their noses, save for Rouge, who was too slow to move her gloved hand to her hidden face.

"Looks like it's up to me." 'Rouge' stated.

"Be careful in there!"

"Don't worry! I got this!"

The faux fashion model went into the cave, soon lost to their sight in the darkness. As the red-cloaked 'huntress' made her way into the entrance of the cave, she took some fire dust and lit a torch. She felt the temperature drop within the caves, but it didn't bother her. Her thoughts wandered as she ventured deeper into the cave.

She smiled, thinking to herself, _Doesn't this bring back memories..._

A brief flashback of her and Jaune came to her. How oblivious they were to the danger that lurked in the Emerald Forest cave...

 _Memories that I shouldn't be thinking about._ the faux fashion model reminded herself.

She came back to the present. She looked around her, trying to see if she couldn't find the Death Stalkers.

 _Is this really the right cave?_ 'Rouge' thought.

Before she could ponder that question, she felt a claw pinch at her left ankle.

"Ow! What the...?"

She found a baby Death stalker pinching at her heels, quickly stomped on it and impaled it with her sword, turning it to black dust. Immediately thereafter, she heard a growl and turned to find two normal size Death Stalkers and nearly fifty baby ones standing before her. The two larger ones growled in unison.

 _Oh... Looks I made mommy and daddy angry..._

Back outside the cave, the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon.

"She's been in there a while." Jaune noted. "Maybe we should go in after her?"

"Not necessary." Ren responded. "I hear footsteps. Fast footsteps."

The red-cloaked huntress ran out of the cave, carrying the torch as the Grimm followed closely behind her. Jaune asked her, "How many are there?"

'Rouge' put out the torch, answering, "Well, looks like we got two adult ones and a lot of babies."

Ruby looked at the tiny Death Stalkers, smiling adorably. "Aw... They look kinda cute."

"Trust me, they are not cute." Ren responded, getting out Stormflower.

Nora, Ruby and Jaune got out their weapons, with the first one asking, "What's the plan, Jaune?"

"Rouge, use your new weapon to trap the two adults with your ice! The rest of us will work on destroying their young."

She took out Froidcoeur, now in the form of a white and snow blue gun, and shot at the larger of the two Death Stalkers. She fired away, quickly freezing their tails in ice, and followed up with freezing one leg on each side. She fired more shots to freeze them further as the camera shifted to her friends.

Nora took Magnhild, in the form of a launcher, and started firing small grenades at ten of the baby Grimm, killing them instantly.

With Stormflower in his hands, Ren quickly fired at ten of the tiny Grimm, swiftly eliminating them.

Jaune, with Crocea Mors, slashed at ten tiny Death Stalkers, slaying them.

Ruby took Crescent Rose and swung her scythe towards them, releasing a wave of fire dust, killing another ten. 'Rouge' attempted to get the last of the baby Grimm, but before she could, the remaining baby Death Stalkers started to burrow under the ground.

"Oh great..." Ren stated.

Jaune looked nervous. "Do they always do this?"

"Yes!" Nora shot him a glare. "You should've known that!"

"Nora, you should really give Jaune a break." Ruby told her.

"Guys, focus!" 'Rouge' called out. "The remaining babies are going to resurface any moment now, and usually they focus on one target to try and take down."

Jaune screamed. "Why me?!"

The tiny Death Stalkers were shown pinching at both his ankles and the lower part of his right leg. He tried to shake them off, but without much success. 'Rouge' fired ice shots at them with her gun, freezing most of them. Jaune pulled the remaining two off and tossed them aside to Ren, who shot them down with Storm Flower.

"Are you alright?" the red-haired girl asked in her normal voice.

He slayed the frozen baby Death Stalkers, causing them to disappear in a blur of ice and black dust. "I'm fine, thanks to you."

"Uh, Jaune..." Nora began.

The two parent Grimm were slowly starting to escape from their traps. One broke free and immediately charged towards them, quickly clawing at them and nearly getting Jaune and 'Rouge', who barely jumped out of the way in time.

Ruby attempted to fire gunshots at the first one's tail, only to miss. "Come on! Stay still!"

"Uh, Ruby?!" 'Rouge' exclaimed.

"Huh?" She didn't realize her mistake until it was all but too late; In the midst of firing, the first Grimm had gone over its trapped partner, and Ruby unintentionally set them free as the last ice spikes cracked and broke into pieces. "Aw man!"


	76. I Think I'm Breaking Down

In the forest outside Mensonge, team JNPR-Ruby was battling the two Death Stalkers. And Ruby had just accidentally let one of them loose.

"Crud..." Ruby mumbled to herself.

"You need me to freeze them again?" 'Rouge' asked, her weapon now in sword form.

"Not necessary, but if we could get rid of their stingers, we'd be in great shape!" Jaune told his crew.

Ruby fired a round of fire dust at the first death stalker, slowing it down as Ren fired shots at the second one's tail.

The second stalker was slashed at the legs by Jaune and Rouge's swords. Nora let the pink lightning charge her up and she rapidly run forward, bringing her hammer down on the stalker. The stalker's tough exoskeleton armor started cracking.

"Guys, did you see that?" Jaune noted.

Nora looked in amusement. "I didn't think that part could be broken."

"Quickly, if can crack it completely, we should be able to defeat it!"

Ruby fired at the cracked stalker as Nora shifted Magnhild to its grenade launcher form. The cracks in the armor became bigger and more apparent.

Jaune turned to Ren and Pyrrha, both avoiding the pinchers of the scorpion like Grimm.

Ren was also firing away and trying to slow it down, but to no avail. "Looks like it's not letting up."

"I got another idea!" The nouveau femme fatale turned to the team leader. "Lift me up!"

Jaune knelt down to let 'Rouge' land on his shield, managing to throw her into the air. She used her polarity to secure her hold on her sword and used it to slice off the scorpion's stinger. As she backflipped to stick the landing, the stinger fell down on the Death Stalker as it howled in pain. Behind them, a pink explosion occurred as the first Death Stalker was destroyed. Jaune proceeded to slice off some of its legs with aid from Pyrrha. During this Ruby dashed forth with her semblance and embedded her scythe in the cracked carapace, slicing the Grimm several times and destroying it in the process.

"Your days of terror are over, Grimm!" Ruby exclaimed.

"That's the ticket!" Nora cheered in agreement.

"We did it. Nice job everyone." Jaune complimented.

"Pyrrha's idea was really bold, yet smart." Ren stated.

"I would agree." The team leader nodded in agreement. "Good job Pyrrha." She turned away sadly. "Pyrrha?"

The cloaked huntress didn't say a word and left without saying a word. Jaune looked at his teammates with an expression that said, 'What do I do?'

"Go and console her." Ren told him. "The rest of us will go to Hematite and collect our reward."

Following his advice, Jaune left to catch up to Pyrrha.

* * *

Back in Mistral, Sienna Khan, now with a black cloak and a new black mask with gold linings, stood on the rooftop of an apartment in the uppermost level of Mistral. She looked at the clouded sky above her.

 _Perfect. It's time to make my move._

The High Leader of the White Fang jumped from one rooftop to another, eventually making it to the library Miss Malachite told her. First Story Library, in the highest level of Mistral city.

 _I hope she's right about information being here... My best friend is dead, Athena has taken her place and is who knows where, and my only clue to what happened to me is that strange symbol._

She examined the building before her. It was a large square-shaped one-story building with very few windows. Sneaking in was not going to be easy. She looked for the back entrance and checked the coast for clearance. Afterwards, she got out her lock-pick and picked the lock. The lock clicked and came undone. She checked her surroundings once more and entered the building.

The High Leader looked at the forest green walls, the color invisible if it weren't for her night vision. The floor was lined with black carpet as she slowly strolled forward. A green light was faintly seen in the distance and as Sienna was about to make a right turn to a new hallway, she saw a small sphere with a small green dot on it. A security camera. The tigerwoman took Cereberus Whip and threw the first arrow at the camera, causing it to be destroyed in the explosion.

She picked up the arrow head and went forth, seeing an emergency exit door and a door that was locked. She unlocked it, only to find it was a janitor's closet. She sighed in discontent and went forth.

Eventually she entered the main hub of the library, and found herself shocked. Even though the library was a one floor building, it was a huge space. In the middle of the room was a big circular desk where people would check out books in the daytime. To the left of the desk was a hallway that led to the front entrance. On every wall there were bookshelves so huge they consisted of several small sub-level floors made of metal railings to access the upper levels of the big bookshelves.

 _Oh Gods, this thing is huge!_ She breathed in to calm myself. _Okay._ _Where's the restricted section?_

Sienna decided to look in the front hallway to see if there were any locked doors. The only thing she found were the bathrooms and a small private computer area for studying and online work.

 _Oh boy... Is this like the movies where the restricted section is opened by trying to lift a book and a book shelf parts to show a path?_

She went back to the main desk and invaded the drawers, wondering if she could find instructions to where the restricted section was. She found various post-it notes reading;

 _Ninjas of Love to Z129_

 _The Boy Who Fell From the Sky to T567_

 _Another Pun to C345_

None of these notes made sense to Sienna, nor did they help her. She groaned and slammed her fist. A whirring sound was heard and she realized she had pressed a hidden-behind-the-counter black button. She found the source of the sound coming from a small reading area with red comfy chairs and she moved one out of the way to see a cylinder glass elevator rising from the ground. Once the elevator had stopped, a ding was heard as the glass door rotated to the side, allowing for entry. She entered the elevator, the door closed and the elevator began its descent.

 _Now we're getting somewhere._ She looked up at the elevator, seeing no camera. _I gotta say, clever place to hide an elevator._

Once the elevator was down deep enough, she let her hood down, revealing a smirk.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ruby, Ren and Nora were walking through the village of Mensonge. As multiple fights were heard in the distance, the heroes tried to ignore the sound and keep their noses in their own business.

"Man, do people get any sleep here?" Nora asked.

"Oh, I'm sure they find a way..." Ren said.

Ruby looked depressed by the events around her. "Why does the southern side of the village have to be so... chaotic?"

"Don't worry, Ruby. Once we get back to the north side where our hotel room is, we'll be in good shape."

The trio went forward, continuing in somber silence. As Nora went through the city, memories came back to her. Silent versions of their team's battle with Charles Mustard were shown as his voice echoed in her mind.

 _"...cheated and lied his way into Beacon..."_

 _"...forged his transcripts..."_

 _"...stole his great-grandfather's sword..."_

 _"He stole a briefcase of money to pay for his education. He's a liar and a thief!"_

Back in the present, Nora put her hand to her left elbow. _He lied to us... but yet... he didn't want to come here..._

Ren noticed Nora's sorrow. "Nora?" He touched her shoulder. "Is everything alright?"

"This village... is a village of lies and crime..." She turned away from him. "How is it... that... that Jaune didn't want to come here?"

"Nora..." Ruby began.

"What?! He lied to us. He lied to all of Beacon's staff, stole money..." She groaned. "Are all Arcs criminals?"

"Nora." Ren firmly began. "You are clouded by anger and being overly accusatory. Don't say Jaune's family is guilty unless it's proven that they are not innocent. From what we've heard at the dinner at Edom's cottage, it seems like they're nice, respectable people. As for Jaune, I know you're angry with him, and you have every right to be, but... isn't it time that you've forgiven him? Or at least, make a start in forgiving him for his bad deeds?"

She folded her arms. "But aren't we supposed to holding him accountable for his actions?"

"Yes, we are supposed to be holding him accountable, but that doesn't mean we have to breathe fire down his neck. Besides, he's already under enough pressure as it is. Perhaps you should try being team leader for a day and see how it feels."

The electric powerhouse frowned. "I'm not judging him for his leadership. I'm judging him for the actions he took to secure his place at Beacon Academy. I mean, he's still in purgatory, isn't he?"

"He is, but have you not noticed his attempts in improve and redeem himself?" Nora widened her eyes in realization. "Think about that."

Nora slowed down and looked at the ground ruefully as the other two walked forward.

 _Clouded by anger... Is this how Pyrrha's haters are? Too wrapped up in seeing the bad to see the good?_

The young valkyrie was forced to think about that and her actions as they continued forward.

The scene transitioned to the three of them walking into a tavern. As they entered they saw a few people at the bar countertop, some simply sitting around, while others were drinking. There were numerous tables, some square shaped, while others were circles. They walked through seeing numerous people at the tables. Some were playing card games and gambling. Some were drinking. Some were drinking and gambling. There was also an arm-wrestling match going on between two evenly-matched burly men. The trio made their way to a small square table in the back of the building.

Sitting alone with a wooden chair to the wall was a middle aged woman with red eyes like rust, dark skin and even darker hair. She wore black trousers and a dark brown blouse that had had its left sleeve ripped, exposing her arm. She wore a square-shaped hematite pendant encased in a silver socket and black heeled boots to complete the look. As they approached Hematite, they saw her with a glass of ice water and a plate of wings that had barely been touched.

"Ah, I see you have returned." she smiled. She looked around for Jaune and 'Rouge'. "I see two of your teammates are absent. They didn't die out there, did they?"

"No, they were just tired and opted to get some rest after the fight." Ren answered.

"I see. That's a relief. It would've been very sad if they did. So, tell me- how many Death Stalkers were there?"

"Fifty total, but most of them were babies. Literally. They were easy." Nora answered. "Their parents though... not so much."

"Hmm..." She studied their expressions. "You seem to be telling the truth."

"Of course. We're honest people." Ruby stated.

"Just for good measure though, I want you to give me a detailed oral report of your battle."

And so the three took turns explaining what happened as they fought the Grimm.

"Okay, you're certainly not liars and I apologize for sounding accusatory." Hematite handed Nora a sack of money. "Here's your reward- 10,000 Lien. That'll be more than enough to get you and your crew to the kingdom of Mistral."

She smiled. "Thank you, ma'm."

"You're welcome. I'm just finally glad to have found good, honest workers."

"Why do you say that?" Ruby asked.

"The last person I hired to exterminate Grimm just took the money and run. We were attacked by those Death Stalkers that same night, and many more after that."

"Well, you shouldn't have any Grimm invading you tonight." Ren stated. "At least, Death Stalkers shouldn't be present." He turned to his other two teammates. "Come on, let's get back to the hotel room."

The three took their leave.

* * *

Back in the hotel room, Jaune looked at his girlfriend with concern. The Arc Knight sat on his bed as the red cloaked huntress sat in a chair nearby the window with her hood down, showing her loose hair for all to see. She took a sip of water as Jaune silently observed her.

[cue music- I Prevail-Breaking Down]

"Um, Pyrrha, I know you've been awfully silent lately, but could you please just tell me what's wrong?"

"Please, don't call me that anymore." She spoke in her true voice before looking down sadly.

"Is that why you're so upset? Because I called you by your true name?" She nodded in confirmation. "But why? We're not even in the public sphere." He tapped his fist against the walls. "These walls are super thick. No one can hear us."

The former Invincible Girl turned away. "I hate that name."

Her boyfriend looked at her, saddened and confused. "But it's your name. How can you hate it?

She turned to him with a fiery glare in her eyes. "Because Pyrrha Nikos is the name of a failure! I've failed everyone Jaune!"

"No, that's not true! You know that's not true!" he insisted.

"Is it true?" Jaune stopped to think as the faux fashion model stood up and went on, "I failed to stop Cinder the first time round, and when we saw Emerald and Mercury at Beacon, I failed to stop them. I've never been strong enough. I couldn't be the Invincible Girl that everyone needed me to be, and I still can't. And now everyone hates Pyrrha. I can't risk letting my face be seen. Why do you think I'm always wearing this mask, even in my sleep? It's because everyone wants my head on a platter!"

"But no one's here but me. You don't have to wear the mask. You could take it off for a bit."

"No! I can't do that! You know I can't do that! What if someone comes barging in and sees my true face?"

"Pyrrha..."

"Stop saying that name." The red-haired warrior commanded. "She is dead to me. Better to let her remain dead."

"How can you say that?!" he asked her.

"Because Pyrrha's fire has burned out." She continued in her French accent, "It is time for Rouge's ice to take its place." She sighed, shifting to her normal tone. "I need some space and time alone."

As she made her way to the door, Jaune gently took her wrist. "Pyrrha... Please... don't..."

"It's over, Jaune." Pyrrha spoke. The knight gasped as she broke free of his grasp. "Au revoir, mon amour." 'Rouge' told him.

Soon thereafter, she shut the door behind her and left him heartbroken. The knight stood still for a few moments. Saddened and worried about her to no end, he buried his face in his knees. Try as he might, he couldn't stop the tears from falling.

The scene switched to the red haired warrior standing in an empty washroom, her emotions bubbling underneath and her thoughts racing. Pyrrha/Rouge took off her mask to air off her face, and there were a few visible marks left from where the mask had been worn. She set the mask down in front of the sink.

 _Everybody's out to get me. From rogue huntsmen and huntresses, to not-huntsmen combatants, civilians, politicians, everyone but my friends._ _I guess I never noticed how fear came creeping in... My enemy emotion... The one that threatens to reveal me to the world each day. Person in the mirror... A friend, yet a foe... It seems some days I'm my own worst enemy.  
_

She brought her hand to where the mask was formerly resting on her face. The skin felt dry and maybe even a bit irritated. She sighed.

 _Everybody fucking hates me. Not just the Trojan Alliance._ Another sigh was released into the empty air. _I told my friends how everyone's after Pyrrha, and they still don't want me to wear the mask. I feel like no one's listening to me._ _I think I'm breaking down._ _I think I may be thinking too much. Am I paranoid? Have I lost my mind? Or am I in the process of losing it?  
_

The red-haired warrior turned around as she thought she heard the sound of a door opening, but it was really nothing. She set the mask down and splashed some cold water on her face. _I really_ am _losing it. I'm secretly beginning to feel hopeless. No one will ever accept Pyrrha Nikos as a heroine or a future huntress.  
_

She grabbed some paper towels and dried off her face. She felt a little bit better physically, but her emotional state was getting down. She was breaking down.

 _I tell people I'm fine, but like everything else, it's just a big lie._

She got out a container of lotion, took off her black gloves and squeezed some of the white moisturizing liquid onto her left hand. Using her left hand, she applied the lotion to the area where her mask was and used both hands to spread it around her entire face.

As she did this, she thought, _Why can't the lie be true? Rouge is confident, bold, strong. She's the one the world needs. Not a scared, insecure weakling like Pyrrha!_

She applied the remaining lotion to her arms and washed off the remaining excess lotion on her hands.

 _Why are you saying that?_ another part of her asked. _Is it because people don't like you? Is it because they hate you?_ She paused for a moment. _Or do you hate yourself?_

The gladiator girl stared at her reflection in the mirror, and a few tears were shed. _I don't really like myself. But how can I like Pyrrha Nikos? Rouge Gorlois is much better. She's a huntress and a hero and Pyrrha Nikos has been condemned by everyone. S_ _he was blamed for crimes that weren't hers and couldn't be the Invincible Girl everyone needed her to be. She failed to stop Beacon's fall, failed to save its citizens, and failed to stop the ones responsible for the attack. She failed and failed and failed._

The faux fashion model used a paper towel to wipe away her tears and looked at her mask and gloves. _But perhaps Rouge can succeed where Pyrrha has failed._

She picked up her gloves and put them back on. She took the mask, looked at it for a few moments ruefully, and put it back on. Then she looked at her new weapon. _There's a reason Rouge's weapon is named Froidcoeur. It means cold heart. And if having a cold heart and being nearly emotionless will protect Pyrrha from the Trojan Alliance and all who wish to kill her, then so be it. From this day onward, Pyrrha Nikos is now dead. And Rouge Gorlois will be the one to save the day.  
_

The huntress sheathed her sword and felt a cold chill creep over her and vibrate throughout her whole body. She felt a cold emptiness from within. At first there was sadness, then nothing. As her sanity had completely collapsed, her heart began to freeze over. But she thought nothing of it. The huntress turned away from the mirror, not realizing that she had lost her heart _and_ her mind.


	77. When Everything is Wrong, We Move Along

Author's Notes:

-Greetings readers. As of today, I have finished one of the worst (and weirdest) semesters of my life. To celebrate me getting through, you guys get another chapter! Hooray!

-Also, as of last chapter (sorry not sorry), I decided to change the Hurt/Comfort genre to Angst. Let me know what you think of this change.

Alright boys and girls, let's get this show on the road! We got a long way to go.

* * *

Ironwood was shown at his desk, writing a letter with his right hand. Most of the note was blurred out, but he was shown signing his signature at the bottom. He folded the paper horizontally twice and put it into a envelope already addressed to a recipient. He sealed the envelope with tape just as he heard a knock on the door. In response, he hid the envelope in an empty desk drawer.

"Come in." he answered. Emily Khloris had returned, holding a clipboard in her right arm. "Mrs. Khloris. There you are. I was beginning to worry that you had been killed in combat."

"Not quite." She gave a dry smile before handing the clipboard to him, containing papers on Yang's arm measurements and other important details. "I succeeded in acquiring Yang Xiao-Long's arm measurements for a prosthetic arm to be made in her place. I would have been here sooner, but my plane crashed in the tundra and I had to make the rest of my journey on foot. And it wasn't the Grimm that almost got me- I nearly died in a raging blizzard!" She sighed heavily. "Fortunately, I found a log cabin shelter on the outskirts of Normandouen and was able to weather out the storm."

"I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that." He got out his wallet and handed her some Lien. "The rest of your payment."

"Thank you, General."

Another knock on the door was heard. "Come in."

The doors opened, revealing Iris to be there. "Hello Headmaster Ironwood."

The two hunters looked on in disbelief, but Ironwood was the one to ask, "Iris? What brings you here?"

"I would like to register for classes for the upcoming academic year. I would also like to apply for any scholarships."

"Well, it's last minute, but that can be done. Just fill out the application forms." Iris sat down in one of the chairs and began filling out the form with a blue pen from Ironwood's desk. "Also, I have to ask, since your team dissolved, would take you prefer to be a solitaire student or try to find new teammates?"

"Solitary student." Her grey eyes turned blue. "Although I had my best friend Mindy, she is now dead, and Nila was horrible to me during my time as a member of team CIMN (Cinnamon). I'd rather be alone than in bad company."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I can understand your decision. If you change your mind, you can join the Reformation Queue anytime you like."

"I will keep that in mind." Iris looked at Atlas's headmaster curiously, her eyes turning grey. "Speaking of Cinnamon and Nila, what happened to them after my departure?"

She continued filling out the form as Ironwood answered, "The two were forced to answer Robyn's questions about the Painted Wall Incident alone, and from what I heard, Nila had a lot of nasty things to say about you." Her eyes turned blue as she appeared ashamed. "Your teammates survived and are about to enter their third year at Atlas." Her eyes turned grey again. "Nila chose to be a solitaire student, and Cinnamon immediately joined the team reformation queue. Unfortunately, we never found teammates for her."

"I see." Her eyes turned yellow. "Well, I wish Cinnamon well. May she succeed in finding teammates and new friends." Her eyes turned red. "To Nila, I wish her the worst. May she fail and regret teasing me."

Ironwood said nothing as she continued filling out the form. Emily blinked at her estranged daughter. "Iris?"

She looked up and turned to her mother, her eyes now green. "Oh, I wasn't expecting you to be here."

"I... I don't understand." Emily glared at Iris, her voice raising in volume with each statement spoken. "You told me you hated being a huntress trainee. You told me that you never wanted to go to Atlas Academy ever again. You disobeyed me to become an artist! And yet, now you're here, wanting to be a huntress again! Why?!"

Her eyes turned purple. "Well... The thing is..." They turned red as she glared at her mother. "A lot of the reason I hated the art of being a huntress was because you never truly cared about doing the right thing or saving lives." Mrs. Khloris was shocked upon hearing that statement. "You only wanted money and a legacy to leave behind. I never realized that until more recently. And I will admit, ever since the Painted Wall Incident, I was scared that I'd fail as a huntress trainee and that I couldn't save innocent people from the Grimm. But just yesterday, I had to face that fear."

Emily raised an eyebrow. "What happened yesterday?"

Iris folded her arms and looked at her mother with one green eye and one red eye. "You don't know? It's all over the news."

"Bear in mind, Iris, I've been gone on a mission for the last few weeks. Anything that happened within the last month I hadn't heard a thing about."

She unfolded her arms and her eyes were now red. "Long story short, less than a month ago, I was hired by Whitley to create an artwork for the SDC Charity Ball. I finished my painting and at the reception a rude, rich woman insulted it, thus insulting me and the subject of that painting. Because she insulted the painting's subject, Weiss lost her cool and accidentally summoned a Boarbatusk, which proceeded to wreak havoc. With Weiss weaponless, and Ironwood absent from the room at the time, I had to step in and slay the creature. After a brief struggle, the beast was successfully vanquished."

"And what happened afterwards?"

"I angrily admonished the woman and broke down thereafter. I was comforted by Ironwood, and later on my friend Whitley. I feared that the attendees would see me as a freak, but they didn't." She smirked, her eyes turning yellow. "And my painting sold for a high amount of money."

Emily didn't gasp, but she stood there, completely speechless. Ironwood was also surprised by this statement. A few minutes later, Iris finished filling out the forms and turned them into Atlas's headmaster.

The huntress finally spoke. "That still doesn't explain why you're here when you've finally succeeded in achieving something I never thought to be possible."

"I'm through with being a failure in both aspects of my life." She turned back to her mother with red eyes. "I'm tired of being pushed down and beaten to the ground, both physically and emotionally, by everyone around me. I'm not choosing between two paths I've been given by you, a forced path of misery and loneliness vs a path of poverty and disgrace; I'm forging my own path, one that allows me to achieve both desires of art and combat simultaneously."

She gave her daughter a glare. "We'll see about that."

Emily left the room coldly, Iris glaring at her as she left. A moment later, Ironwood hesitantly asked, "You never got along with your mother, did you Iris?"

"We never did, and somehow I doubt we ever will. I mean, she disowned me and kicked me out after dropping out of Atlas. If I be frank, I don't give a damn about her." She turned back to the general with grey eyes. "Is there anything else I need to do?"

"There's nothing you need to do, but if you don't mind, I'd like to ask a favor of you."

The painter looked at the general curiously. "Alright, what might that be?"

He got out the letter he hid earlier and showed it to Iris. "I need you to deliver this to the Schnee Family Manor."

* * *

Meanwhile in Mensonge, Ruby, Ren and Nora had returned to the hotel room at the inn.

"Hey, Jaune and Rouge, we're back!" Ruby announced.

"We got the _mone-y_!" Nora sang in a delighted tone.

The three turned to find Jaune with his knees curled to his chest. Ruby looked at the team leader with concern. "Jaune? Is everything okay?"

Nora searched around for her red-haired teammate. "Where's Pyrrha?"

"Pyrrha..." He sobbed. "She's gone..."

Ruby turned to him, perplexed and crestfallen. "Gone? What do you mean she's gone?"

"She's gone, but not in the way you would think. She died an emotional death, losing herself in the woman she's pretending to be."

The girls gasped.

The silver eyed warrior stuttered, "No..."

"This can't be true..." Nora stated, trying to hold back tears.

Jaune shared her sentiment. "I truly wish that it wasn't true, but I'm afraid it is."

Ren sighed sadly as he looked down. "I was worried this could happen. Who would've known this day would come so soon?"

"So where is she?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know." Jaune sobbed some more. "She said she needed some space and time to herself."

"She didn't tell you where she was going, did she?"

"I'm afraid not." He wiped away his tears. "If she's not back by morning, I'll search for her."

"This is really bad. Pyrrha's mentally and emotionally unwell... And she's all alone..." Ren stated.

Nora became even more depressed. "I feel like we should've seen the warning signs, but we failed to comprehend them... Until now."

"So... what do we do now?"

"Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything we can do. We're stuck in a catch 22."

"A catch 22?" Ren raised an eyebrow. "Why would you say that?"

"Pyrrha lost her mind and needs professional help thanks to the Trojan Alliance being after her, but because of the Trojan Alliance being everywhere we go, we can't get her treatment without risking her cover being blown and her ending up in jail, or worse dead! This sucks! There's no way out!"

He punched the pillow on his bed and moaned in sorrow. Everyone remained silent, no one knowing what to say. This silence continued for a full minute. Ruby and Ren looked at Nora. She looked at Jaune with a mixture of sorrow and guilt.

"Hey um, Jaune?" Nora eventually spoke. "I'm afraid I don't have any answers to this problem. But I want you to know, I'm here for you. And I'm sorry I wasn't here for you as a friend during these last few weeks. I'm really sorry that I gave you the cold shoulder and acted like you were a criminal. I was too clouded up in anger and I will admit that I had difficultly trusting you after Charles revealed your secrets to us. I focused too much on the lies, and... I forgot the truth. You have your faults, but ultimately, you're a good guy who's trying to make up for the error of his ways. Can you ever forgive me?"

"I already have." Jaune gave a small smile and welcome her with open arms. "Now come here you hard-head!"

Nora threw her arms around her friend. "Please... Just don't lie like that to us ever again."

He returned the gesture. "I won't."

As Nora and Jaune made amends, Ruby looked forlornly at the window. "I hope Pyrrha's okay..."

* * *

With her hood down, Rouge Gorlois made her way through the village, no real particular destination or goal in mind. The silver linings on her red mask almost seemed to glow when the moonlight shone down on them. She looked at the wanted posters of Pyrrha and seemed to turn a blind eye, as if she was unaffected by the declaration they made.

 _Who would have known it'd come to this? Pyrrha Nikos has died, her weapons Milo and Akouo left behind to her former lover. It's hard to remember how it happened... All I know is that Pyrrha left Jaune, then came to me..._ She felt a cold breeze at her upper arms but was unfazed by it. _And now_ _I stand here with only Froidcoeur at my side.  
_

The camera zoomed in on her duffel bag as she ignored the contents inside. She ventured further into the village, seeing several vendors selling things. She approached the late night marketplace. As she perused the vendors stands, she saw some selling valuable jewelry weapons and ammunition, and even rogue huntsmen and huntress services.

 _This is a black market. Why am I even here?_

Her eyes laid upon a dust vendor, with dust in all forms.

"Bonsoir, mademoiselle." the man greeted. "I see you've taken interest in my wares, cherie."

"This is a lot of dust." Rouge spoke. "Where did you get it?"

"Can you keep a secret?" She nodded in the affirmative. "It's actually forbidden dust shipments from Atlas. They have an embargo on dust and no one else can get it right now. Not legally anyway."

"Really?" Rouge inquired. "I was not aware of this."

"Yeah. Jacques isn't willing to risk his ass to get dust over here, so we have to sneak it out of Atlas without any major assistance. And there is the possibility of being caught, but damn is it worth it!" He laughed. "Any of this 'gold' catch your eye?"

She was silent for a moment before answering, "My weapon- Froidcoeur, it runs on ice dust. I used about half it against Grimm today and I need more dust to fill the sword. Not to mention I'll need backup dust once I run out."

"Hmm... You look like a beautiful lady... The normal price on this is eight Lien for five ounces of dust, but since I'm actually in a good mood, I'll offer you that same amount of dust for just five Lien." She pondered to herself for a moment. "So, what will it be?"

"I'll take your offer. Three bags."

The vendor smiled. "I almost thought the thought of black market dust would turn you away."

"Doesn't matter." She got out her wallet. "As long as it protects me and defeats my foes, I'll kindly pay for it."

She handed him fifteen Lien and he handed her the appropriate amount of dust.

"Thank you for your business, Miss..."

"Gorlois. Rouge Gorlois."

"Have a good night."

Rouge turned away without saying a word. Once she was out of sight, she refilled her sword with more ice dust and set the remaining dust bags in her black purse.

 _Locked and loaded. Ready to face whatever threats may come my way. More than enough dust to help get through Vale's outskirts._ She stopped, gathering her thoughts. _Well, hopefully it is enough... Failure isn't an option and neither is falling in battle. You know what Pyrrha asked of you to do before she died- to defeat Cinder and her cronies no matter the cost.  
_

She continued going forth into the night, and the scene transitioned from her walking in the village to her entering her hotel room. By the time she got back, everyone else was already sleep. Ren and Nora shared a bed but kept to their respective sides, Jaune was sleeping all alone, and Ruby was sleeping on the couch. She took one of the pillows off the bed that Jaune wasn't using, a spare sheet from the closet and arranged her sleeping area in between the two beds. She threw the sheet over herself and felt a shiver, but she dismissed it.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Evernight Castle, Cinder sat at one of the chairs in the meeting room. She looked at the crystal throne to her left, which was empty.

 _Where is Salem? It's not like her to be late._

Right at that moment, Salem entered the room, carrying a vial of black liquid with red accents that appeared to be diluted.

 _Of course. More diluted Grimm liquid. Tonight is not the night._

"Well, looks like you're early. Good for you. But bear in mind, you can't rush this process."

Cinder rolled her eyes, thinking, _I know, can we just get this over with?_

She opened the vial and levitated its contents in her right hand before setting the empty vial down. Cinder lifted her left sleeve shoulder down out of her dress, showing most of her left arm to be missing, save for her forearm and shoulder wrapped up in bandages.

 _This is gonna sting. But if helps me to get stronger..._

Using her powers, Salem applied the diluted Grimm liquid to Cinder's arm. She felt her arm burn and sting, and she bit her tongue. She tried to not scream or make any noise, but as the intensity grew, she moaned in pain.

"Don't fight it. You must make the Grimm, your inner darkness dread you. Make it obey you."

Cinder took a few breaths to try and calm herself. She tried to ignore the pain and closed her eyes. Her mind turned to the Grimm battle that was part of the glove she used. Although it was absorbed into her when the connection to Amber was cut, and later on hurt her thanks to Ruby's silver eye power, she could remember it clearly. She felt the Grimm essence from her arm turn into dark energy and imagined it as black energy flowing through her. It wasn't as powerful as acquiring the maiden's power, but she felt it strengthen her, even if only a little.

Once she felt the energy settle within her, she opened her eyes and saw Salem smiling.

"Seems your making progress." Cinder gave her a questioning look. "Patience, Cinder. Patience. You will be stronger, but remember that this transformation is a slow and painful process. That is all for tonight. You are dismissed."

Cinder bowed and took her leave.

As she made her way through the hallway, she told herself, _Soon. Soon I'll be free from this pain, and I will be stronger.  
_

* * *

Back at the Schnee Family Manor, Weiss was shown in her room. She looked at herself in the mirror, seeing her slightly baggy eyes and messed up hair.

 _I can't believe this. Nightmares, losing my mind, and my inheritance... All because I failed to save my friend._ She sighed. _And now father wants to keep me here..._

 _What do I do now?_ _What should I do? What should I do?_ A thought came to her. _What would Pyrrha do?_ She softly gasped. _Pyrrha..._

The ex-heiress slammed her fist down. "Enough."

She pulled the curtains shut, moved her bed over several feet, pushed a desk and kicked aside a low glass bench at the foot of her bed. A wide shot showed the furniture askew. A cushioned stool was on its side on the floor, and a long white box marked with the Schnee snowflake symbol rests on her vanity. She approached the box and opened it, revealing Myrtenaster and a few vials of dust inside. She lifts her weapon and poses with the blade held vertically in front of her face.

 _I_ _f father wants to keep me here, he's going to need to try harder._

In the makeshift practice area of her room, the ex-heiress held her rapier at the ready. She stepped back and twirled, with a stream of blue-white light coming from the tip of her sword. On the close of her twirl, Weiss held it aloft before striking the tip to the floor. A summoning glyph appeared, the Arma Gigas' sword slowly but surely beginning to emerge. Her eyes were shut as she concentrated, the power of her Summoning causing a small wind to blow the hair around her face.

The glyph glowed brightly and spun faster. The books shook in the bookcase on the wall. One particular tome, decorated with floral relief, fell off the shelf and opened on the floor. The window burst outward as the room was consumed in a bright white light. The light faded to reveal Weiss covering her eyes with her arm.

The door to her room is pushed open by an urgent Klein Sieben. "Miss Schnee! Are you alright?!"

The butler's eyes widened as he leaned backwards, looking amazed. Weiss gave him a smile and turned to face the Arma Gigas she successfully Summoned.

"I'm perfectly fine." The Arma Gigas dropped down to one knee and bowed at Weiss. Weiss looked out the broken window. "Klein, get Estelle. I need a favor or two."

Klein nodded determinedly and went off to fulfill the task given.


End file.
